These are the four medals that all soldiers deployed to Iraq get. I think they are in order of precedence from left to right, although I'm not exactly sure. From left to right they are: Armed Forces Reserve Achievement Medal; Global War on Terrorism Meda; Iraqi Campaign Medal; and National Defense medal. I had 3 or 4 of the AFRAMs, and this is my third ND medal, though many reservists got it for the first time on deployment. It is pretty much an active duty medal.
Medals became a very charged issue in my unit. The scuttlebutt was that because the 42 ID was a NG division, it had an unrealistically stiff standard for medals and combat badges.
2 comments:
Ah yes...ND, good ol' ketchup and mustard.
But yeah, I feel your pain with the medals/badges thing. It seems that with any military organization this always rises to the top. Even with my little lowly AFROTC det., we've had issues with recognition and awards. I never really got the hubbub; I know that they are important for recognition, promotion, etc., but I've always felt that doing your job well and getting noticed for that was more important than some medal.
Now, of course, I imagine that things are quite a bit different in combat, when people feel they deserve medals or awards received under fire.
It's good to see them come up with the OIF campaign medal. It doesn't mean much now, but later on, it may go towards points for veteran's preferances for jobs.
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