It's not about the board. It's about the command saying "thanks, man" after busting your ass for a squadron for years. Also, knowing that some one took the time to write it up to recognize you goes a long way.
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NEWS Air Force leadership talks frankly about pilot retention
- Thread starter ChuckMK23
- Start date
It's not about the board. It's about the command saying "thanks, man" after busting your ass for a squadron for years. Also, knowing that some one took the time to write it up to recognize you goes a long way.
Not sure if it's really recognition though. I wrote my EOT NAM and NCM from my JO sea and shore tours. We all did. Whatever.
Then that's a failure on your department heads and generally speaking the command all around.
So, you're saying that you're submitting ones that probably don't deserve it? I would argue if you're submitting one, then you already think it's worthy. That or you're part of the problem submitting frivolous awards . . .
I might be confused. Do you expect you DH to write your award with no input?
We always seem to come back to this whenever we have an awards thread talk. Inputs =/= writing your award. A DH may not have been there the whole time, or owned you the whole time, so they'll need inputs. My inputs were just copying my FITREP bullets from my time in the command and emailing them to my DH, included with a bunch of snarky and sarcastic comments about how awesome I was.
But if you guys, as JOPA, are actually writing your awards, then the Hinges have already won the war. I'd rather leave a command with no award knowing I wasn't important enough to anyone to bother to write one than write my own so I had some gedunk to wear at my next command.
If everyone is essentially getting the same award - how is it a 'thanks for working hard'?
Because then, if you're the only one who doesn't get it, it's basically a passive-aggressive "fuck you." #AwardsInflation
I'm saying that most O6 ISICs expect justification for awards outside the established norms.
We may be talking service cultures here but not everyone gets an EOT award in most Marine squadrons. As a matter of fact, I would say most people do not get an EOT award in Marine squadrons. However, I've seen regularly around 25-30% of senior flight leads and squadron instructors who have stood out amongst their peers get NAMs and NCMs. It was common for your run of the mill aviator to leave with nothing and It also was not considered a negative to leave empty handed. I also saw a fucking ensign or J.g. in a Navy command get a NAM for raising funds for the navy relief society or some shit prior to executing orders. Go figure.
So again, yes, when used appropriately, getting an award is a big deal. Then again, my service places a premium on not having everyone looking like an overcompensating Mexican general in their uniforms - so to each their own.
It would be nice if other services followed the USMC method (coughcoughAirForcecough). But until then, it's like an arms control treaty. No one's going to back down unilaterally until someone forces everyone to back down at once. Otherwise, the hard cases just screw over their people.
The irony is rich.
I agree on the Marine philosophy. I don't feel like my DHs failed me when I wrote my own awards. I actually enjoyed working for the ones who had me do it as a random corollary. That being said I don't feel any pride in my EOTs because everyone gets them. When in my JO tour I got a NAM just the same as the dude who qualified TACCO but wasn't allowed to sit the seat and when told to route his own EOT I literally had to walk him through the routine process, I really don't care about the award I got. Same thing on shore duty when I got the same NCM as the dude who wasn't allowed to instruct because my he sucked so bad that all the squadrons hated him and then when he left I and another dude had to undue the damage he did with regard to readiness. Moral of the story, EOTs are bullshit. Simultaneously, I spent maybe 10 minutes writing each one, so I don't feel let down by my COC. I think it's more of an indictment of our whole system.
The late Col. David Hackworth once wrote a column on this that laid out a pretty fair start for fixing the system. Don't agree with all of it; he's completely off his rocker WRT the Combat Action Ribbon, and really doesn't grok the point of the SSDR, to name two examples. And don't get me started on eliminating the POW Medal. But it's a flawed jumping off point that at least is in the ballpark. TL;DR . . . if it isn't in combat or direct support of combat, it probably shouldn't rate a medal.
(and before someone jumps in, like someone always does around here . . . no, I don't see it happening, barring Congressional or SECDEF-level action, which we probably won't get.)
(and before someone jumps in, like someone always does around here . . . no, I don't see it happening, barring Congressional or SECDEF-level action, which we probably won't get.)