I was on the bus and I overheard, because, well if you don’t want me to listen you shouldn’t yell into your cellphone and start all your friends laughing…
Anyway the jist of it was there were these four young men and from what I could make out they were all in the armed forces. It sounded like they weren’t all in the same branch.
One of them said something about medals into his cell phone and then hung up. One of his buddies said “But you got a good conduct medal right?” And the guy he asks just kind of turns away, and another of the young men “Dude, how bad were you that you couldn’t even get a good conduct medal?”
Then the other three started laughing and teasing him.
My question is how hard is it to get a good conduct medal?
In the Air Force, it’s automatic after 3 years.* It really should be called the “Not Bad Conduct,” because the only people who didn’t get it were people who had gotten in pretty serious trouble.
*Huh, according to the wiki link the AF killed it a couple years ago. I had no idea, and I’m in the Air Force. I wonder if mine’s a collector’s item now.
I’ve been out a few years now but in the Army it is essentially as described as above. If you stay out of trouble for three years it is almost automatic.
I got one. Personally I think it’s a disgraceful medal to hand out simply because, as has already been stated, you get it for not screwing up too badly for a 3 year period. As if everyone in the armed forces is just assumed to be a fuckup and only a select few can keep their shit together for 3 consecutive years.
Ordinary civilian here, saluting and thanking y’all on behalf of the rest of us.
How hard is it to get OTHER medals? Maybe the intention was for the Good Conduct Medal to be a sort of consolation prize, so that no one goes home emptyhanded, and everyone goes home with at least something?
I think that it’s just a bygone of a different era when most enlisted military men were either drafted against their will or recruited from a rougher class of people.
Keeve, I see your point, but armed sevice is about maintaining an extraordinarily lethal and efficient machine of destruction beyond the comprehension of most normal people. It ain’t The Special Olympics. I always felt that your “good conduct medal” was the paycheck and the privilege of continuing to serve.
In the Navy, it’s every four years without an NJP (non-judicial punishment) or court martial. Every four years, you sew on a service stripe to your dress blues, regardless of conduct: if you’ve had good conduct, the stripes are gold, if not so good conduct, the stripes are red. I retired as a CPO with five gold service stripes, which meant that my left sleeve looked like I was important.
While you’re given the award every four years, you of course only wear one ribbon. With each successive four years good conduct, you add a brown star to the ribbon. Once you reach five awards, this changes to a silver star.
Assault consummated with Battery to an MP while in performance of his duty;
Drunk and Disorderly Conduct;
Resisting Lawful arrest;
Attempted Escape from lawful detention;
Disrespect to a Senior Non-Commissioned Officer;
All on one drunken night. I was awarded a good conduct ribbon. It’s in my 201 file and everything…
It’s not that hard, as stated above. I received my GCM on the way to the airport, when I was leaving Japan. There’s no greater feeling of dread than when you’re finally going home, only to see a Yoeman running after you, frantically waving his arms.
I thiught I was being recalled, and almost fainted when I found out it was just my GCM.
On a related note, we called the National Defense Medal the CNN Ribbon. This was because most of the folks receiving one back then had only watched about the Gulf on television.
In terms of other decorations, it depended on your command. I was in charge of rebuilding all of the magazine sprinkler systems on a Nimitz-class attack aircraft carrier, and recieved a Letter Of Commendation when I changed commands. On the other hand, I personally saw a Mess Specialist (cook) receive a Navy Achievement Medal for baking a cake. I also saw a Bosun’s Mate get a NAM for re-tiling the passageway outside of the Admiral’s At-Sea Cabin.
Don’t get me started on the NAM. When I first joined the USN, it meant something. By the time I left, they gave them out like candy to any dickwad for doing nothing. I turned my nomination down for just that reason.
I was in the Army for 6 years and got 6 Article 15’s (non judicial punishment) and still got 2 GCD’s.
Yet a buddy of mine had only 1 for a bullshit rap and did not get one because the CO just did not like him.
I remember being about 8, and asking my dad what the 2 or 3 ribbons on his uniform were (he got out in 4 years as an E-5 in 1973), and when I got to the Good Conduct Medal, he told me what it was, and I said something like “You must have been the best Staff Sergeant in the Air Force!”, and he said:
“Nah… that just means I didn’t murder anyone while I was in.”
So apparently 35 years ago, it wasn’t particularly hard to get or highly thought of.
I was in the Navy for four years and I ended up with three rows of ribbons several medals. The thing is, they are all automatic. Your ship gets sent on random missions and some of these missions net you more bling and ice than others. The only ribbon I am really proud of is Operation Enduring Freedom or whatever because I had to sit on my ship in the middle of the ocean going in “mod lock” circles with no land in sight for three months.
It’s the things you have to go out of your way to earn that mattered most to me. I got my Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist wings while I was still just a wee seaman because I went out of my way to study. Now that’s bling to me.
