devaluation of Medals ..................

[MORTARDUDE]

A soldier and a boy scout were sitting together on a bus. The soldier had quite a few ribbons and medals on his chest. The boy scout asked the soldier how he got his medals. The soldier said, "Oh, they give'em to us for being in the Army." The boy scout replied, "Huh. In the Boy Scouts we have to earn them."

Looks like they're giving away medals again...

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"Recently in Iraq, an Army two-star general put himself in for the Silver Star, a gallantry award, for just being there, and for the Combat Infantryman Badge, an award designed for infantry
grunts far below the rank of this division commander. During the war, members of an Air Force bomber crew were all awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for lobbing a smart bomb from 30,000
feet onto a house where Saddam was rumored to be breaking bread - even though Saddam's still out there somewhere sucking desert air. In 1944, the only way a bomber crew might have gotten the DFC would have been if it had wobbled back from Berlin on one wing and a prayer after a dozen-plus missions of wall-to-wall flak. ... The U.S. Air Force has approved more than 50,000 medals for operations in the Middle East. The U.S. Army, trying to catch up with the folks in blue who flew through all that imaginary Iraqi flak, has issued medals as though they were Cracker Jack prizes. So far they've pinned on tens of thousands of awards, from the coveted Distinguished Service Cross to the CIB. More than 5,000 Bronze Stars alone have been awarded."

--Col. David Hackworth

[sfc_darrel]

MORTARDUDE,
Good Post!
The Air Force has always been free and easy with medals. Sorry that the Army is following suit.
Career military will know the difference. Some who get medals will brag about it later and it won't be believed that they earned it by those who "know" war.
5,000 Bronze Stars is too many.
Darrel
Go for the PTSD treatment. It helps. I'm too much better to qualify for disability for it

[Jerry D]

I agree Darrel the Jet Jockeys always got lotsa medals for flying over the enemy and dropping bombs on them but us mechanics who kept their planes flying after they broke them are lucky to get a letter of Acheivment. So Yes in the Air Force they do give out a lot of medals but if you ck the MOS on the dexs you will notice most are Officers. There aren't too many Sgt John Levitow's getting recognized nowadays in Iraq like there was in Vietnam