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Originally Posted by Shek
Tommy,
I'm sure that there are absolutely cases where awards were inflated. However, I'm afraid that your friends assertion comes off to me as a "walks uphill both ways" claim, i.e., that it was harder in the Marine Corps than the Army to get a BSM, thereby impugning all BSMd awarded to Army personnel. I don't like claims that detract from individuals' accomplishments.
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I think there is an unfortunate misunderstanding of what the Bronze star is or isn't.
I'm not trying to cast doubt on any persons award.
The Bronze star, before the reforms after OAF, were the combat zone equals of the Army Achievement and MSM.
The only Bronze Star that denotes heroism in combat is one that has a "V" Device indicating that it was awarded for an act of combat heroism.
And being at an Army base after Desert Storm and watching some of the awards formations I will tell you there was an abuse of the system.
Any time that EVERY E-5 in a Brigade recieves a Army Com and EVERY E-6 recieves a Bronze Star. Something is wrong. It is also known that the Army awarded more medals for the Grenada invasion than there were soldiers in grenada.
Here are some often repeated figures, this time in a Slate report.
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Start with the variance among the military branches.
The Air Force awarded 2,425 Bronze Stars and 21 Silver Stars from March 2002 to August 2004 for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Twenty-seven airmen were killed in combat during that time, making the Air Force's ratio of top-level ground-combat medals to fatalities 91-to-1. (This figure doesn't include medals awarded for airborne bravery.)
As of July 31, 2004, the Army had awarded 17,498 Bronze Stars and 133 Silver Stars in Operation Iraqi Freedom, while 636 soldiers have died, an awards ratio of 27-to-1.
And the Marine Corps has awarded just 701 Bronze Stars, 12 Silver Stars, and six Navy Crosses (the Navy's second-highest award) for combat in Iraq, while 264 Marines died—a ratio of less than 3-to-1. Is the Marine Corps too stingy or are the other services too liberal?
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Its a long ongoing complaint. Reforms took place in 2000 after congress wanted to know why the AF awarded BSMs to more stateside support personnel during the Yugo bombings than they did to Airmen in the Combat Zone