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Awards O sea stories

RobLyman

RobLyman

- hawk Pilot
pilot
None
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!
 
H

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
A friend of mine who is a reserve ENS CEC is the OIC for his unit. He led a massive (100+ sailors) CEC training exercise (2 week AT), and he wrote up 4 of his top sailors for NAMs. The evaluators said this CEC battalion scored the highest among recent units, active or reserve. Then, on the date of NAM award, the CEC battalion CO also surprised the ENS OIC with a NAM, too. Super proud of him. Even though it was “just” a 2 week AT, the ENS spent about 6 mo of nights and weekends (beyond normal drill periods) prepping his unit for it and doing logistics, RESPAY fixes, etc to make it happen. And obviously during the exercise he was out in the field leading his sailors throughout the field evolutions.

I didn’t realize quite how noteworthy his NAM was until seeing the AW.com stories about downgrades to LoA, LoC, nothing except a verbal “thanks,” etc.
 
Spekkio

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
BigRed389 said:
NCM's for more senior O-3's in URL is not uncommon from what I've seen, at least outside aviation. The first time I got put up for one was by my EOD OIC. Second was from an aviator on my shore tour...go figure.
For SWOs you're generally due an EOT as new LTJG (1st sea tour), as a new LT (2nd sea tour), and then two more times as a LT (shore tour and sea tour as DH).
The DH one should be as a LCDR (Sel), or at least screening for LCDR and by that point, having 4 NAMs would just be a bit silly.
For the more junior LTs, it's just a way to breakout the guys who are doing better. Still rare though, and as you note, also probably has to do with the bureaucracy involved...you can do the exact same job on a CG or DDG, but one CO is an O-6 and the other is not...
Click to expand...
What we do on the submarine side:
E-4-E-7: NAM EOT. NCM EOT for hot-running chiefs.
E-8/E-9: NCM EOT. MSM for the COB (equivalent to CMC) if he's the #1 in the squadron.
DIVOs (O3): NAM EOT. NCM EOT for hot-running officers (typically ~1 every two years per boat).
DHs (O4): NCM EOT
XO (O4): NCM EOT, MSM if #1 in the squadron.
CO (O5): MSM, LOM if #1 in the squadron.

For deployment awards almost everyone E4-E6 gets either a NAM or a FLOC, although the latter is limited to a certain % of the crew so you get some E4s/junior E5s getting NAMs. Ironically, the unlimited NAMs signed by the CO are worth more for promotion points than the limited letters from the Admiral. CPOs = NAMs, SCPOs = NCMs, DIVOs = NAM with a rare NCM, DHs = NCMs.

So basically you know if someone was doing a bang up job if they're wearing the '1 up' award.
 
azguy

azguy

Well-Known Member
None
Hair Warrior said:
A friend of mine who is a reserve ENS CEC is the OIC for his unit. He led a massive (100+ sailors) CEC training exercise (2 week AT), and he wrote up 4 of his top sailors for NAMs. The evaluators said this CEC battalion scored the highest among recent units, active or reserve. Then, on the date of NAM award, the CEC battalion CO also surprised the ENS OIC with a NAM, too. Super proud of him. Even though it was “just” a 2 week AT, the ENS spent about 6 mo of nights and weekends (beyond normal drill periods) prepping his unit for it and doing logistics, RESPAY fixes, etc to make it happen. And obviously during the exercise he was out in the field leading his sailors throughout the field evolutions.

I didn’t realize quite how noteworthy his NAM was until seeing the AW.com stories about downgrades to LoA, LoC, nothing except a verbal “thanks,” etc.
Click to expand...

Don't ever confuse the standards between Active and Reserve...
 
Jim123

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
Gatordev said:
"...resulting in the construction of a base shuttle stop and 100 square feet of PT deck. Without his efforts, the base shuttle stop would not have been completed...."
Click to expand...
With the first line and the last line, that doesn't leave much space for bragging about GMT completion and dental readiness.
 
kejo

kejo

Well-Known Member
pilot
My awards “crucible” was as air dept admin-o on the carrier (a collateral) and I developed two pet peeves that became instant kick-backs. 1) The use of any variation of “flawless” or “flawlessly” and 2) obvious lack of spell check. I’m fine wordsmithing and massaging the diction but if english isn’t your first language (Chief!) run it through Word first.
 
P

Pags

N/A
pilot
kejo said:
My awards “crucible” was as air dept admin-o on the carrier (a collateral) and I developed two pet peeves that became instant kick-backs. 1) The use of any variation of “flawless” or “flawlessly” and 2) obvious lack of spell check. I’m fine wordsmithing and massaging the diction but if english isn’t your first language (Chief!) run it through Word first.
Click to expand...
"Performed flawleslie as hanger bay yellow shirt"
 
kejo

kejo

Well-Known Member
pilot
RobLyman said:
Les Flaw, not to be confused with Les Paul, was best know for his world renown kazoos, some of which are collectors' items.

While looking for a funny link to put with this post I learned something. Electric kazoos are a thing.
Click to expand...

I’d prefer a single coil to a humbucker kazoo. I like the punchiness and clarity when I’m trying to sound like a dying Donald Duck.

Now back on topic...
 
Jim123

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
kejo said:
My awards “crucible” was as air dept admin-o on the carrier (a collateral) and I developed two pet peeves that became instant kick-backs. 1) The use of any variation of “flawless” or “flawlessly” and 2) obvious lack of spell check. I’m fine wordsmithing and massaging the diction but if english isn’t your first language (Chief!) run it through Word first.
Click to expand...
Flawlessly wordsmithed
 
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