# How Hard Is It To Get A Good Conduct Medal **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-get-a-good-conduct-medal/479091 "2008-12-29T18:04:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-get-a-good-conduct-medal/479091/41 "2008-12-30T23:22:56Z")
> [@PaulParkhead](#): > > Um, until he got his _what_? 😕 “Big Chicken Dinner” = Bad Conduct Discharge. Oh, of note: Officers usually don’t get GCMs. They’re expected to _always_ have good conduct. Tripler (That’s prolly been covered in a post I haven’t read yet). ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-get-a-good-conduct-medal/479091/42 "2008-12-30T23:33:45Z")
Ah, now it makes sense. Thanks **Tripler**. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-get-a-good-conduct-medal/479091/43 "2008-12-31T14:53:15Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > 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. Also known (in its british incarnation, at least) as “Undetected Crime” medal. [QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] We called the NDSM the “Everybodybadge.” [/QUOTE] Almost as bad as the [Mong Gong](http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Mong_Gong). ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-get-a-good-conduct-medal/479091/44 "2008-12-31T19:06:00Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > AFAIK, you can win medals for heroic action outside combat - say, pulling someone from a fire in a burning building or something. Yes. A friend was Air Force enlisted and got decorated for giving first aid to one of her neighbor’s kids and saving the child’s life. This happened at a some other kid’s birthday party. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-get-a-good-conduct-medal/479091/45 "2008-12-31T22:58:59Z")
Yes you need 12 years in a row to get gold stripes in the Navy. It’s an all red or all gold, no mix and match. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-get-a-good-conduct-medal/479091/46 "2009-01-01T06:11:24Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > “Big Chicken Dinner” = Bad Conduct Discharge. > Tripler :smack: Am I the only one that thought he actually got a chicken dinner? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-get-a-good-conduct-medal/479091/47 "2009-01-01T07:25:46Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > :smack: > > Am I the only one that thought he actually got a chicken dinner? > > 😃 Nope. I figured it was the standard government issue retirement dinner, rubber chicken with all the fixings. I never knew anyone who received a bad conduct discharge, and I knew plenty of people who did some stupid and/or illegal things. One of my supply sergeants spent a month in the Navy brig at Pearl Harbor after they discovered that he was supplementing his income by selling low-value government property off base. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-get-a-good-conduct-medal/479091.md?page=2)