Nah, I just think the innate ability of SuppOs to design new pins is simultaneously awesome and sad. Smiles of course.
I am a Marine going through a Navy commissioning program, does my time in the Corps automatically grant me the FMF warfare pin, or do I still need to go through the same route as those with no prior Marine service? Thanks!
No, the FMF pin means you were attached to a Marine unit providing support. Chaps, Docs, Chops and other various support weenies generally serve in such billets.
For officers? I am going to hazard a guess that it will stay at one on most for a while, I have seen very few O's with the 'extra' pins like the FMF one and most who had two transitioned. To be frank I think more pins just makes us look like USAF pogues with their cyberwarfare and space ranger pins, and that isn't a compliment. The Brits and Israelis got it right, a minimum of pins and ribbons and those they do have matter.
Basically. Yeah an Officer EXP Pin. And the IDW pin doesn't appear nearly as hard fought as it perhaps should. It hadn't been around a year and I saw everyone and their grandma with one along with a flavor of wings or surface pin. Hence the minimum of two "pieces of flair" comment I made. Maybe they were grandfathered, maybe not.
Not an IDW guy but I do know they grandfathered many in. It'd be pretty silly to make an O-6 do his PQS from scratch. Also, they've got a lot of transfers from the URL ranks who'd bring over previous pins. What's the rationale for an EXP Pin? They've already got the AQDs for it. Most O's don't stay expeditionary, and those that do already have pins that probably cost way more pain (EOD, Divers, and SCWS for example).
I just left LOGSU last week and the pin IS on the desk of the admiral to get approved and then on to NEX to get it approved and BAMM....6 pins. I ended up getting orders to a Boomer...nothing like that sexy sub pin...and lets not forget the patrol pin....so really there are SEVEN pins I like this game haha
Someone in the Supply Corps now has to become " that guy" and earn all the pins and attempt to wear them all at once knowing he can't. *Sigh* Someday
They grandfathered some of us. I forget what the criteria was. I know to be grandfathered you had to have your community PQS complete. Most of us that were grandfathered didn't want to be but it's hard to start up a qualification program if you don't have anyone who can sign it off. We all had to complete a test which admittedly wasn't that difficult. But after almost a decade in my community after my lat transfer, if I can't answer those questions encompassing all designators in the IDC then I need to seek employment elsewhere.
Just don't be a douche and forget where your roots are. Our pins may resemble that of a SWO, but it doesn't mean we have to act like one. There is nothing I dislike more than to see a fellow Supply Officer trying to be like a SWO... we joined our designator for a reason. But by all means, if standing watch and being eaten alive is what gets your rocks off- don't let me get in your way ;-)
Ugh, the IDWO pin. The worst thing is when people take it seriously, and actually ask for (or offer) a pinning ceremony. Basically, of you finished intel school before a certain point, you were grandfathered in and only had to take an NKO course (I took mine one afternoon in Afghanistan when I was bored). The actual PQS for the pin is pretty worthless. The Supply pin at least says you've been on a sub, surface ship, etc., but all the IDWO pin says is that you can... I don't even know, build .ppt slides and brief them.
As long as it isn't a big RSVP event with a program and seating chart, I can't see why not. Every community does some sort of small pinning ritual.
If it's anything beyond a "Hey, you managed to track down a bunch of people who have better things to do than sign off your PQS and then regurgitated the information they gave you to a board, congratulations on jumping through some hoops!" it's silly (and even that's a bit much, in my opinion). Again, IDWO only here. From what I understand, individual COs can make, say, the SWSCO pin more or less like a SWO pin, but I would let others speak to that. I do think the Navy is diluting the value of warfare pins, but that's based on what I've seen in my community. I don't know; maybe I just have a conservative vision of warfare pins, which is that a gold warfare device generally indicates that you're qualified to operate major equipment that can kill people. Sitting at a computer and competently moving pucks around on a slide (IDWO) doesn't scream "warfare qualification" to me.
Basically. IDWO seems made without a specific platform in mind for a reason, to make you better IDWOs not ninjas. However I agree that when I look at a IDW pin I know you understand IDW, but I don't know what that means for me on a watch team or any where practical. I guess if a fire breaks out, an IDW guy is the guy to go to for writing the SITREP but I need to find a ESWS to man the hose?
I think IDWO is still experiencing growing pains. As to the qual, it is what you make of it. You speak from your experience in INTEL which is just one small facet. I wasn't in favor initially but then I already had a SWO pin. Your pin reflects your chosen profession. The qual process is what the command you earned it at chooses to make it. Are we going out and making a huge deal of it at most commands? No. But I do think recognizing a couple of years of effort is appropriate. If you're that opposed then don't wear it.
