Steve Sailer contrasts the breastplate of decorations modern generals wear with the more modest medals and ribbons sported by senior American commanders of the recent past — men who accomplished vastly more than their medal-inflated successors of the present day.
The portrait Sailer posts of Adm. Spruance, one of the great heroes of US Navy history, makes a powerful statement, and one not at all flattering to the military mores of our time.
MH - Secular Misanthropist says: General Petraeus’s uniform looks like a scout uniform run amok with merit badges.
Noah172 says: The military awards system is unfair to servicemen who have accomplishments worth honoring and embarassing in its promiscuousness. You get ribbons or badges for everything, including completing basic training (the Army Service Ribbon, which is sometimes referred to by soldiers as the “f*g rainbow” because of its multicolor design) and just serving in the military (the National Defense Service Ribbon). Every deployed soldier in the grades E7 and above, and every lower grade soldier who can plausibly claim to have been in a supervisory position (“NCOIC” in military lingo) gets a Bronze Star (without a “V” device, for valor in combat) automatically; everyone else gets an Army Commendation Medal (Arcom) automatically (unless you P.O. somebody above you or get into disciplinary hot water). Even respected combat awards, such as the Bronze Star with V device and the Silver Star, are often politicized, going to senior NCOs and officers in a unit engaged in a combat action even if the lower NCOs and enlisted performed the actual acts of valor.
I served eight years in the Army. I left as an E6 (staff sergeant). I did a 15-month tour in Iraq and went on many combat patrols but did not personally perform any heroic deeds; IOW, I did my duty like anyone else.
By the end of my time, I had three full rows of ribbons on the left breast of my Class A (the dress uniform), with a metal badge each above and below — above, the Combat Action Badge, given to non-infantry who were near enemy fire, regardless of the soldier’s actions in response thereto (many people got this when a mortar landed kinda sorta near their living quarters, or the HQ offices of battalions or brigades where they were working as staff members); below, a marksmanship badge.
Charles Cosimano says: That is silliness. It is nothing more than a matter of fashion.
Dan Davis says: I’ve often noticed this disparity between pictures of even 5-star flag officers of WWII and today’s military. My dad spent 21 years in the Navy including China service in the ’30s and submarines during the war. He had only a few ribbons plus the submarine dolphins and Combat Patrol Badge, which reflected actually getting depth-charged more than once by the Japanese Navy. After 20 years in the Navy myself, the only medals I got that really mean anything are the Expert Rifleman and Expert Pistol Shot. I used to notice Air Force people just a few months out of basic training already had more ribbons than me.
Pete S says: Perhaps this is just the Armed Forces realizing that a generation of troops and officers who have had nothing but praise throughout their lives need this type of decoration to be motivated to do their jobs? It is the same in many private businesses – in my firm we have “gold awards” that are based on quotas of recipients, not actual achievements. Maybe we should just make all of these ribbons and medals and awards look like bowling trophies.
Charles Cosimano says: I just thought of something. Have you ever seen a photo of Patton with all his decorations? And can anyone honestly say that he did not earn them?
Scott Gay says: This is part of an orderliness mentality. These are displays of performance as it is related to diligence( and why those with longer time need more), and directly related to current military mores.
jaybird says: Great scene from I’m Gonna Get You, Sucka(1988)…
steve says: We are actually giving out fewer valor awards than we did in WWII and the Vietnam war. In particular, the number of Medals of Honor has been much lower. It appears, my eyes arent good enough, that Spruance is wearing just his valor awards and/or merit awards (believe they started in WWII) for this picture. If he wore all of his service awards for this picture, I suspect he would have quite a few more. (The system is tilted towards officers and senior enlisted.)
http://www.govexec.com/defense/2007/01/medals-for-military-valor-rarely-in-the-spotlight/23514/
Look at old photos of WWII officers in full regalia, Prussian officers and some of the Civil War garb.
Steve
Beyng says: Good ole’ Stonewall Jackson didn’t even wear a uniform.
AnotherBeliever says: These things vary from service to service and from decade to decade. I believe it is common practice for Navy officers to only pin on only their top 3 ribbons for all but more formal occasions. (In all branches the awards have a regulated order of precedence.) In the Army, it was also not uncommon a generation ago for soldiers to wear only a selection of their top awards. I remember this from when my father was serving back in the 80s. However, when I got to my first unit and spoke with senior NCOs and officers, the cultural pressure seemed to have shifted to wearing everything.
The thing to keep in mind is that the wearing of awards and ribbons is not, for the most part, a matter of individual choice. There’s specific regulations and requirements for what the given “uniform of the day” is. Beyond those clearly spelled out requirements, the pressure to not stand out from your peers and members of your command is strong. If your peers tend to wear everything, you’ll feel under some obligation to do the same, though you can probably get away with skipping a row or two. If your superiors “strongly encourage” something, you do it.
As far as whether awards are being handed out more commonly in days past: that is true, to some degree, at least in the Army. Any of us who have served even a few years, with some time in a combat area, have at least 3 rows. Men and women of higher rank seem to acquire them even faster. A mid-grade officer or NCO with six or seven rows of ribbons is not unusual. However, the number of medals awarded for valor in combat have actually been far below average for wartime.
Taco says: Love this post!
The more martial the culture, the more ribbons and awards will play a part. As Napoleon said when he was mocked for handing out ribbons and awards like toys: “Men are ruled by toys”.
johan says: I’m just glad that we no longer have conscription or wars with tens or hundreds of thousands of American dead. I prefer the problem of ribbon inflation.
Carlos says: “The Dictator” Sascha Baron Cohen still has more medals!!
Uncle Vanya says: That photo of Petraeus, posted by Sailer at his blog, made me think of the ones we’d see from time to time here in the West of the members of the Soviet Politburo, atop Lenin’s tomb, as they reviewed the May Day parade. There they would stand, the youngest member of their gerontocracy in his early ’70′s. Each man would have at least twelve medals pinned to his overcoat, and in one photo I recall seeing Brezhnev wearing 27. Perhaps in the USSR a chest covered with trinkets moved the average Soviet Citizen to admiration and respect toward their leaders, but to me, then in high school, it seemed absurd, almost Pythonesque.
This makes me wonder: “Do societies in decline, or with a waning sense of national purpose, try to compensate by passing out more baubles?” All other things being equal, is the excessive decoration on the chests of our military leaders a sign of national collapse or, at the very least, of a military uncertain of its purpose?
Just based off conversations I’ve had with my housemate who is a reservist, I gather that (at least) the Army is giving out more awards in the modern day. For instance, he would go to base to run with another guy in his unit to help the guy pass his PT test. Their CO saw them and told my housemate he would get some form of meritorious award for something as simple as that. This combined with a “mine is bigger” mindset seems to be a decent explanation for the clinking chests of officers. That said, not all military men believe in wearing ALL their medals and awards. One such soldier is the same housemate’s dad.