I wasn't the awards O on my last deployment, but here is a sea[desert] story about our awards;
Awards O had 2 mediocre NCOs working under them. Disciplinary action had already been leveled against one. The Awards O decides to store award inputs for the battalion on a share drive assessible to EVERYONE in the battalion. My own award submission (yes, we were asked to do our own) was placed on that share. A week later, other award submissions started showing up on that share drive. Not able to resist, I glanced at another submission. To my surprise, the other person's submission was clearly plagiarized from my submission, even taking credit for some of the things I did! Then several others showed up that were 'copies' of mine as well. I suggested the award O put a password or something on that share. A few weeks later all of the files disappeared. After the deployment when other units were receiving their awards, ours were nowhere to be found. Then, we were asked to resubmit our awards.
I eventually found out that the Award O had moved everything to their own PC's desktop. The computers were re-imaged to Windows 10. The AwardO's computer was wiped...awards were gone. Award O blamed NCOs for losing the submissions. I also found out that the someone had seen the Awards O's own award on that share drive prior to moving it/deleting it. It was a BSM. This person NEVER LEFT KUWAIT!!! A year after returning from deployment our awards were presented. The Awards O ended up with an MSM. We also had a 1LT who got a BSM because he was a detachment commander, even though he was not at a remote site He had roughly the same responsibilities as a DIV O in a Navy squadron.
In summary, yes, the Army gives out BSMs like candy. Yet, at the same time they fail to award their soldiers that deserve recognition.
I just remembered this jewel: In February 2019 I was finally awarded an Army Achievement Medal for efforts during AT three years ago!!! The award was found in the office of the same Awards O mentioned above. They also found a PURPLE HEART for another soldier who had left the military two years ago. The citation was FIVE years old!
Awards O had 2 mediocre NCOs working under them. Disciplinary action had already been leveled against one. The Awards O decides to store award inputs for the battalion on a share drive assessible to EVERYONE in the battalion. My own award submission (yes, we were asked to do our own) was placed on that share. A week later, other award submissions started showing up on that share drive. Not able to resist, I glanced at another submission. To my surprise, the other person's submission was clearly plagiarized from my submission, even taking credit for some of the things I did! Then several others showed up that were 'copies' of mine as well. I suggested the award O put a password or something on that share. A few weeks later all of the files disappeared. After the deployment when other units were receiving their awards, ours were nowhere to be found. Then, we were asked to resubmit our awards.
I eventually found out that the Award O had moved everything to their own PC's desktop. The computers were re-imaged to Windows 10. The AwardO's computer was wiped...awards were gone. Award O blamed NCOs for losing the submissions. I also found out that the someone had seen the Awards O's own award on that share drive prior to moving it/deleting it. It was a BSM. This person NEVER LEFT KUWAIT!!! A year after returning from deployment our awards were presented. The Awards O ended up with an MSM. We also had a 1LT who got a BSM because he was a detachment commander, even though he was not at a remote site He had roughly the same responsibilities as a DIV O in a Navy squadron.
In summary, yes, the Army gives out BSMs like candy. Yet, at the same time they fail to award their soldiers that deserve recognition.
I just remembered this jewel: In February 2019 I was finally awarded an Army Achievement Medal for efforts during AT three years ago!!! The award was found in the office of the same Awards O mentioned above. They also found a PURPLE HEART for another soldier who had left the military two years ago. The citation was FIVE years old!