According to AR 600-8-22 the goal of the Army awards program is to foster mission accomplishment by recognizing excellence of military members of the force and motivating them to high levels of performance and service. As senior Noncommissioned...
This regulation provides Department of the Army policy, criteria, and administrative instructions concerning individual military decorations, Good Conduct Medal, service medals and service ribbons, combat and special skill badges and tabs, unit...
Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) face many ethical decisions when recommending soldiers for military awards. There are numerous circumstances when our NCOs have been faced with two Soldiers that deserve commendation and the commands guidance is to...
The major factor in determining what award to issue a Soldier is often not the act of heroism or the performance of duty. Instead, it is based on the rank the Soldier possesses and the award system becomes a shell of what it is intended to be....
Awards of recognition for exemplary military service and acts of heroism have been a tradition of the United Starts army for centuries. The selection process currently being used, however, is influenced by subjective and often unwritten rules and...
When a Soldier receives an award, the Soldier should feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. It is a leader’s responsibility to ensure that all awards are recommended and awarded for the correct reason. When the ethical awards process is not...
As senior Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs) we must exemplify ethical conduct in order to be effective and credible in our profession; but living by a code of ethics is not always easy. Sometimes leaders are tempted to behave unethically because it...
Thesis: The Bronze Star Medal has been awarded more for participating in a deployment than for actual meritorious service or achievement during the deployment. Abstract: Because of the proliferation of Bronze Star Medal awards not only has the...
Valor awards have been approved and presented for service, not heroism, during our nations fight in the Global War on Terror. Is this ethically correct? Is a valor award intended to serve this purpose? I don’t believe so. I believe the valor...
Awards in AR 600-8-22 state the military personnel
system will direct a function to enable award authorities
to recognize soldiers for their valor and meritorious service.
Are we giving them away too easily and to many for no
valid reason? I...
The main ethical problem facing the Army today is that we are awarding medals that have no merit. We have degraded the value of our medals to a point that veterans from past conflicts look at us with shame when we tell of our requirements, compared...
The prejudice and bias of awarding awards to low density MOSs is an ethical dilemma facing many units in today's Army. Before I give specific examples let’s look at the word ethics and its true meaning. Ethics is clearly defined as doing the...
In March 2005, 1 st Cavalry Division deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom II. Many of the units in place were having problems with soldiers having accidental discharges into clearing barrels. A blanket policy went into effect to detour the amount of...
The Army awards program has lost its value through years of reduction in the required standards of excellence. Regulatory guidance provides criteria for each award, yet leadership conveniently overlooks or outright ignores the guidance. The Good...
The awards system in the United States Army is highly scrutinized because of the subjective criteria that make up the awards program. The lack of individual emphasis and failure to follow the Army Regulation (AR) by various commanders across the...
This paper addresses the issue of senior noncommissioned officers managing a fair unit awards program. The two traps that are easy to fall into in this task and that we will address at length are first, "the good old boy" system where only those...
The medical Noncommissioned Officer has a proud history in the Army. Every soldier, particularly those in the combat arms, knows the cry of "Medic". It is a cry that shakes the soul. Medical NCOs dread that call but have responded over the years...
At a time of war we are faced with countless ethical decisions on a daily basis, one of them is the way that each Soldier is recognized for their individual performance, or accomplishments. This can be completed immediately, or a later date. As it...
The military award system is designed to recognize Soldiers for their outstanding performance on and off duty and in combat. We as Seniors Noncommissioned Officers should charge ourselves with the responsibility of ensuring that this program...
The United States Army prides itself on being a value–based institution; its regulations, Creeds, and education systems teach Soldiers to “do what’s right.” The Army set the stage from day one to ensure Soldiers know the correct way to...