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Understanding United States Military Awards
Posted November 18, 2011 by Medals of America in Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Veterans, Military, Entertainment
The evolution of the military awards system of the United States may be best characterized as paralleling the American passion for individual freedom. To the casual observer, it might resemble an endless series of unrelated regulations designed to confuse rather than to inform. However upon closer look, you find a highly organized, well documented system that has been overcomplicated by historical inertia.
When this country won its independence from Great Britain, most British traditions were retained but all trappings of the old regal system were repudiated. As a result, almost 75 years elapsed between the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and the authorization of our first military award, the Medal of Honor. (The President traditionally presents the Medal of Honor but does so in the name of the Congress).
As the number of awards grew, responsibility for the approval and presentation of an award to a recipient became (and remains today) a function of the importance of the proposed award. As in most Armed Services around the world, the immediate field commander is empowered to nominate deserving candidates for an appropriate medal but here the resemblance ends. In the U.S. Army, for example, final award authority can be a Company, Regimental, Brigade or Division Commander providing the award is for a campaign, good conduct, achievement, commendation or meritorious service. Only when the upper strata of the “Pyramid of Honor” are attained, i.e., Bronze Star Medal and above, is the senior level of command (The Chief of Staff, Secretary of the Army or Secretary of Defense) required to act upon such recommendations. The other Services follow this pattern closely, some going even further by delegating the authority to issue a few of the more senior awards to lower echelon commanders during wartime situations.
In 1947, when the U.S. Armed Forces were unified into the present Department of Defense, one might have expected a series of orderly and clear-cut directives that would totally reorganize all such awards policies. However, with only a few notable exceptions, e.g., standardization of the height and width of ribbons plus some award criteria, this has not been the case.
Although Joint Service awards committees do exist, they can only recommend general policies for those items shared by all the Armed Forces but do NOT have the authority to set standards within the individual Services. As a result, some 104 new military awards have been authorized since unification, only 25 of which are common to all the Services and the rules governing the display of ribbons and devices now vary so widely as to require a road map.
The first area of potential confusion is the order of military ribbon wear on the U.S. military uniform. A careful examination of the various awards manuals and uniform regulations shows that three distinct arrangements for order of precedence exist among the five Services (the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard share a common scheme).
Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard Order of Precedence
Arbitrarily taking the Navy method as a baseline, the various award precedence schemes break down into general categories as follows:
A. U.S. Military Decorations
B. U.S. Unit Awards
C. U.S. Non-Military Decorations
D. U.S. Merchant Marine Decorations
E. Prisoner of War and Good Conduct Medals
F. Campaign, Service and Training Awards
G. U.S. Merchant Marine Service Awards
H. Foreign Military Decorations
I. Foreign Unit Awards
J. Non U.S. Service Awards
K. Marksmanship Awards
Army Order of Precedence
The order of precedence established by the Army is as follows:
A. U.S. Military Decorations
E. Prisoner of War Medal
C. U.S. Non-Military Decorations
E. Good Conduct Medal
F. Campaign, Service and Training Awards
D. U.S. Merchant Marine Decorations
G. U.S. Merchant Marine Service Awards
H. Foreign Military Decorations
J. Non U.S. Service Awards
NOTE: All U.S. and foreign unit awards (categories B and I above) are worn on the right breast of the Army uniform.
USAF Order of Precedence
The Air Force has been left for last owing to its unique set of ribbon rules. Not only is the Air Force order of precedence different from those discussed earlier but some of their medals and ribbons, designated as “Achievement Awards”, do not fit neatly into the previously defined categories. The Air Force precedence list is as follows:
A. U.S. Military Decorations
B. U.S. Unit Awards
C. U.S. Non-Military Decorations
D. U.S. Merchant Marine Decorations
E. Prisoner of War Medal Combat Readiness Medal
E. Good Conduct Medal
F. Campaign, Service and Training Awards
K. Marksmanship Awards Air Force Training Ribbon
J. Philippine Service Awards
G. U.S. Merchant Marine Service Awards
H. Foreign Military Decorations
I. Foreign Unit Awards
J. Non U.S. Service Awards
When this country won its independence from Great Britain, most British traditions were retained but all trappings of the old regal system were repudiated. As a result, almost 75 years elapsed between the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and the authorization of our first military award, the Medal of Honor. (The President traditionally presents the Medal of Honor but does so in the name of the Congress).
As the number of awards grew, responsibility for the approval and presentation of an award to a recipient became (and remains today) a function of the importance of the proposed award. As in most Armed Services around the world, the immediate field commander is empowered to nominate deserving candidates for an appropriate medal but here the resemblance ends. In the U.S. Army, for example, final award authority can be a Company, Regimental, Brigade or Division Commander providing the award is for a campaign, good conduct, achievement, commendation or meritorious service. Only when the upper strata of the “Pyramid of Honor” are attained, i.e., Bronze Star Medal and above, is the senior level of command (The Chief of Staff, Secretary of the Army or Secretary of Defense) required to act upon such recommendations. The other Services follow this pattern closely, some going even further by delegating the authority to issue a few of the more senior awards to lower echelon commanders during wartime situations.
In 1947, when the U.S. Armed Forces were unified into the present Department of Defense, one might have expected a series of orderly and clear-cut directives that would totally reorganize all such awards policies. However, with only a few notable exceptions, e.g., standardization of the height and width of ribbons plus some award criteria, this has not been the case.
Although Joint Service awards committees do exist, they can only recommend general policies for those items shared by all the Armed Forces but do NOT have the authority to set standards within the individual Services. As a result, some 104 new military awards have been authorized since unification, only 25 of which are common to all the Services and the rules governing the display of ribbons and devices now vary so widely as to require a road map.
The first area of potential confusion is the order of military ribbon wear on the U.S. military uniform. A careful examination of the various awards manuals and uniform regulations shows that three distinct arrangements for order of precedence exist among the five Services (the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard share a common scheme).
Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard Order of Precedence
Arbitrarily taking the Navy method as a baseline, the various award precedence schemes break down into general categories as follows:
A. U.S. Military Decorations
B. U.S. Unit Awards
C. U.S. Non-Military Decorations
D. U.S. Merchant Marine Decorations
E. Prisoner of War and Good Conduct Medals
F. Campaign, Service and Training Awards
G. U.S. Merchant Marine Service Awards
H. Foreign Military Decorations
I. Foreign Unit Awards
J. Non U.S. Service Awards
K. Marksmanship Awards
Army Order of Precedence
The order of precedence established by the Army is as follows:
A. U.S. Military Decorations
E. Prisoner of War Medal
C. U.S. Non-Military Decorations
E. Good Conduct Medal
F. Campaign, Service and Training Awards
D. U.S. Merchant Marine Decorations
G. U.S. Merchant Marine Service Awards
H. Foreign Military Decorations
J. Non U.S. Service Awards
NOTE: All U.S. and foreign unit awards (categories B and I above) are worn on the right breast of the Army uniform.
USAF Order of Precedence
The Air Force has been left for last owing to its unique set of ribbon rules. Not only is the Air Force order of precedence different from those discussed earlier but some of their medals and ribbons, designated as “Achievement Awards”, do not fit neatly into the previously defined categories. The Air Force precedence list is as follows:
A. U.S. Military Decorations
B. U.S. Unit Awards
C. U.S. Non-Military Decorations
D. U.S. Merchant Marine Decorations
E. Prisoner of War Medal Combat Readiness Medal
E. Good Conduct Medal
F. Campaign, Service and Training Awards
K. Marksmanship Awards Air Force Training Ribbon
J. Philippine Service Awards
G. U.S. Merchant Marine Service Awards
H. Foreign Military Decorations
I. Foreign Unit Awards
J. Non U.S. Service Awards
Well let me start by apologizing for my absence. I can list all kinds of excuses for not posting, but I will not other than to say that my daughters were graduating from school at the same time we sold our house and bought a new one. We also had to remodel the new one while living in it and prepare for the graduation ceremony, party, and welcoming family from way out of town. And please don't get me started on the red tape war I had with the VA on my home loan. I lost by the way. That will be fodder for a future post on the decline of the VA and the commercialized business it has become. Did I just state an excuse? Sorry, I feel much better now.
Anyway, I would like to address the issue that has popping up in many media outlets that has made the US of A look like a main culprit in the instigation, or at least, the responsible party in the Mexican drug war. That subject is the issue of guns flowing into Mexico that perpetuate the drug war. I'd like to start by informing my readers that Mexico and various American news media outlets have accused the U.S. of either supplying the guns or not restricting the flow of guns into Mexico that are being used in the killings of hundreds of Mexican citizens. I would like to respond by saying, BULLSHIP, HOGWASH, and Lies. First off, The Mexican government does not want to and will not take full responsibility for the embarrassing condition they have created in their country. So, to shift a some of the blame, they've resorted to manipulating the numbers by using an old ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms)program that tracks U.S. registered fire arms serial number in Mexico which is outdated and unreliable. When Mexican Police or soldiers seize weapons from gun battles and cartel members, they check the serial numbers off of a list which is an old list of weapon serial numbers that have been stolen or known to have been smuggled into Mexico provided by the ATF. Funny thing is, they only check the serial numbers off of M-14s,AR-15s, M-16s, and any American made weapon. They do not check any AK 47 or other foreign made weapon serial numbers or state how many they seized. The result will always be that all weapons that were were seized were American made weapons that were smuggled into Mexico and used to kill innocent civilians. At last count, 80% of weapons seized in Mexico were smuggled in from the U.S. This number is coming from a president of a country where corruption is a way of life and anyone can be bought. In my line of work and the working with people in the position that deal with that particular issue, it has been my experience that most of the weapons enter Mexico from the south. Namely El Salvador, Columbia, and Honduras. Most of the weapons I have seen with my own two eyeballs have been AK 47s, variants of the AKs, and foreign made knock offs. Even in the aftermath photos I receive, the narratives state AR 15s seized but see no mention of the AK 47s I see in the photos.
A few months ago, I stumbled upon a blog by a Guatemalen army veteran report on deserting Guatemalen Kaibiles (elite Guatemalen soldiers) being paid to smuggle weapons and or join the Zetas Cartel in Mexico. When I went back to the page for some more research, the page was 404. Personally, I think the blogger was found out and was 404ed with an AK 47, duck tape and a shovel. With all that being said, most of the guns being used in Mexico that are being used in the narco war are NOT coming from the U.S. as the media says but coming from countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, China, Yugoslavia, and other cash starved countries. Yes. I will not deny that some weapons are going in from the U.S., but not in the numbers you are led to believe.
The Mexican press loves to showcase weapon seizures to the media and display all the weapons seized but fail to mention that that the AR-15 in the photos are actually knock offs made in China with no serial numbers. They want you to think the U.S failed to stop them from being smuggled into Mexico so The U.S can be blamed for one thing or another. I am not releasing the U.S. from any blame in this travesty since I have personally seen U.S. made weapons that have been smuggled into Mexico been used in the killings of Mexican citizens. From where I stand on the shores of the US/Mexican border, I see a different picture than the one the politicians and their controlled agenda driven media states as fact.
I'm just sayin.
Anyway, I would like to address the issue that has popping up in many media outlets that has made the US of A look like a main culprit in the instigation, or at least, the responsible party in the Mexican drug war. That subject is the issue of guns flowing into Mexico that perpetuate the drug war. I'd like to start by informing my readers that Mexico and various American news media outlets have accused the U.S. of either supplying the guns or not restricting the flow of guns into Mexico that are being used in the killings of hundreds of Mexican citizens. I would like to respond by saying, BULLSHIP, HOGWASH, and Lies. First off, The Mexican government does not want to and will not take full responsibility for the embarrassing condition they have created in their country. So, to shift a some of the blame, they've resorted to manipulating the numbers by using an old ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms)program that tracks U.S. registered fire arms serial number in Mexico which is outdated and unreliable. When Mexican Police or soldiers seize weapons from gun battles and cartel members, they check the serial numbers off of a list which is an old list of weapon serial numbers that have been stolen or known to have been smuggled into Mexico provided by the ATF. Funny thing is, they only check the serial numbers off of M-14s,AR-15s, M-16s, and any American made weapon. They do not check any AK 47 or other foreign made weapon serial numbers or state how many they seized. The result will always be that all weapons that were were seized were American made weapons that were smuggled into Mexico and used to kill innocent civilians. At last count, 80% of weapons seized in Mexico were smuggled in from the U.S. This number is coming from a president of a country where corruption is a way of life and anyone can be bought. In my line of work and the working with people in the position that deal with that particular issue, it has been my experience that most of the weapons enter Mexico from the south. Namely El Salvador, Columbia, and Honduras. Most of the weapons I have seen with my own two eyeballs have been AK 47s, variants of the AKs, and foreign made knock offs. Even in the aftermath photos I receive, the narratives state AR 15s seized but see no mention of the AK 47s I see in the photos.
A few months ago, I stumbled upon a blog by a Guatemalen army veteran report on deserting Guatemalen Kaibiles (elite Guatemalen soldiers) being paid to smuggle weapons and or join the Zetas Cartel in Mexico. When I went back to the page for some more research, the page was 404. Personally, I think the blogger was found out and was 404ed with an AK 47, duck tape and a shovel. With all that being said, most of the guns being used in Mexico that are being used in the narco war are NOT coming from the U.S. as the media says but coming from countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, China, Yugoslavia, and other cash starved countries. Yes. I will not deny that some weapons are going in from the U.S., but not in the numbers you are led to believe.
The Mexican press loves to showcase weapon seizures to the media and display all the weapons seized but fail to mention that that the AR-15 in the photos are actually knock offs made in China with no serial numbers. They want you to think the U.S failed to stop them from being smuggled into Mexico so The U.S can be blamed for one thing or another. I am not releasing the U.S. from any blame in this travesty since I have personally seen U.S. made weapons that have been smuggled into Mexico been used in the killings of Mexican citizens. From where I stand on the shores of the US/Mexican border, I see a different picture than the one the politicians and their controlled agenda driven media states as fact.
I'm just sayin.
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