ARMY AWARDS

OK, it just came down the pipe that our BDE will be giving blanket awards to everyone who deployed... this to me is bullshit... it goes against the nature of individual awards... in the army you have unit awards, and individual awards.... giving a blanket award to everyone for individual accomplishments are asinine and kind seems like an oxymoron... what it amounts to is, they don't want to go thru the nut roll of everyone submitting individual awards with individual bullets... they assume (rightly) that most would fuck it up and have to redo them over and over again... still i think they should be made to do their jobs... and that's it, ITS A LEADERS JOB TO WRITE AWARDS.... if they don't know how, make them learn...

that's not my only problem with awards though... that's just what has fueled this fire.... across the board the army award system is fucked up.... their is only a few awards that haven't been tainted to the point that they lose their integrity, and prestige... The Medal Of Honor, Purple Heart, Soldiers Medal, and a few others are taken seriously... now the Purple Heart is boarder line... i don't want to take away from those who have earned it and have giving blood and flesh for this country... but at the same time some get them for bullshit...

right now if your an officer or an E-7 your getting a Bronze Star for this deployment... it doesn't matter what you did.... that's your award.... well to me that award doesn't mean shit to me now... it has lost its integrity..... I think an individual should be assessed on what they did... that should be a determining factor... but its not... it doesn't matter what you did, or do... all that matters is your rank... E-1 thru E-6 will get an ARCOM.... the same ARCOM with the same bullshit bullets.... this infuriates me.... i don't think that my soldier who goes outside the wire on a daily basis, puts himself at adverse risk hundreds of times, and subjects himself to the heighten reality of the fact that the ultimate sacrifice could easily be realised at any moment should get the same award as a soldier who pulled a 8 hour MWR guard 5 days a week for a year.... REALLY.... they get the same thing... they get recognized the same.... the E-7 who doesn't do anything (believe me there is alot of them) will get a better and bigger award then my soldier... its bullshit...

now i don't care about my award.... awards mean nothing to me... but i don't like it when my soldiers get fucked... i wish they would let me write the awards for my soldiers and recognize them for what they did individually.... that's fair and makes sense...

CIB VS. CAB.... lol... i hate this shit... the CIB (combat infantry badge) is only for infantrymen who have been engaged or engaged the enemy... its been round for a long time and has a storied history.... infantry was the only MOS that can get the CIB... the void for other MOS's was there... an infantry man and a combat engr. standing next to each other on the battle field engaging the enemy didn't get recognized the same... for the longest time only the infantryman would get an award reflecting the fact that he was in combat... that's why the CAB was enacted... its intent was sound... recognize those who arnt infantry for being in actually combat.... but its intent was lost as soon as it came into existences.... these fuck-tard faggot cooks, and finance, and admin guys, and supply guys... all these fuckers get CAB's.... Most CAB's arnt earned... a fucking supply guy who goes on a log jam 30 truck convoy.... he's in the 22nd truck and the third truck gets small arms fire (three rounds) off the door.... he gets a CAB... the whole fucking convoy gets a CAB because "the convoy was attacked"... bullshit... small arms fire on an unarmored truck is like throwing snowballs at a civilian car... its not coming thru... so this fag who is 500 meters away from everything gets a CAB... well now i feel like my earned CAB isn't worth shit... its the same with the CIB though... an infantryman deploys and spends the entire deployment in the training room... doesn't leave the wire once... he get a CIB... I've seen it.....

then you have these CAB hunters... mostly officers... they try and try to go on convoys and hope something happens so that they can get a CAB... as soon as they get one they stop going out... these fuckers are all over the place... they don't want to be in combat... they want a nice shiny award saying they've been in combat... its bullshit....

i don't wear mine because of this.... even though i earned mine i don't like being grouped with others who haven't.... i remember about a year before i deployed this time i was back at ft. Riley... i went to the chow hall and when going thru the line i see a SPC cook with a shiny CAB on his cook whites... it disgusted me... now i don't know this guys back story and i cant say he didn't earn it, but it was the principal... he walked around all the other cooks with a sense of superiority.... i could see it on him... that was the day i took my combat patch off and stopped wearing that as well... i never felt that i needed a patch or CAB to validate my experience or to prove to others my worth.... i know who i am and i know what I've done and been thru... i don't need to prove to everyone else that I've done my job or that I'm experienced....

i know I'm just ranting here, but i really don't like the way I'm recognized or the way others are... i don't like that others who have combat patches and CAB's or CIB's feel they are better then those who don't... there is a false sense of superiority the wearer feels... its just not me...