Navy recruiters are now guaranteed a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for every three recruits they bring into the service. The U.S. Naval Academy even received the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation for academic excellence. We have medals from the United Nations, NATO, and even a Volunteer Medal for what you do in your free time! Many of us in uniform are asking the question that led off a recent Navy Times article entitled, "Medal Happy ... Are awards too easy to get?"
Everyone has a less-than-flattering story about the military-award system. My favorite is the Navy commander who, on the occasion of his retirement two years ago, received two Legion of Merit awards. Some might remember that General Dwight D. Eisenhower had four stars and was commanding all Allied forces in Europe when President Franklin D. Roosevelt pinned that very same medal on his chest. Peacetime command of a naval aviation squadron and 20 years of career service are special achievements, but can they compare to leading a million men in the century's most desperate struggle? There are hundreds of similar examples of "award inflation" that might lead many to think that our sacrifices are more worthy of recognition than the sacrifices of those who served before us. I contend that the opposite is true; we need to reevaluate our awards system with an eye to making our decorations meaningful again.
Tougher rules to govern awards traditionally bestowed for valor (the Bronze Star Medal, for example) may be justified, but today's biggest problems are the profusion of new decorations, the recent trend toward end-of-tour awards, and the lowering of standards for our most frequently awarded medals.
The number of awards to recognize the time and place of service has swelled since World War II, and while the Navy has not reached the level of silliness attained in other services, we have created decorations to mark events that are less and less auspicious. End-of-tour awards, based primarily on rank, are a glaring example of how we have eroded the motivational potential of the awards system. The trend in the 1960s toward recognition of "meritorious service" in an administrative context was to recognize the growing percentage of service members who serve in non-combat positions. But if there are more and more medals to distribute, the entire process is cheapened.
As Napoleon pointed out almost two hundred years ago, warriors will sacrifice mightily for "a bit of ribbon." My guess is that those French soldiers were not making the ultimate sacrifice for the NATO medal or the Overseas Service Ribbon. It is to the great credit of the U.S. Navy that it recognizes the subjective nature of personal awards, and their acquisition has little impact on promotion or assignment decisions. Nonetheless, it is unfortunate that the special significance of all but a few of our decorations has been largely lost. The right to grace a Navy uniform should be preserved for decorations resulting from heroic action.
Bureaucracies resist change, but one dramatic step to reverse the negative trends in the award process would be to discontinue issuance of most Department of Defense and U.S. Navy ribbons and medals to naval officers, if awarded for non-heroic action. Efforts expended on officers' awards also could be applied to increasing the recognition of our sailors. Naval officers still would be eligible to receive the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Navy and Marine Corps Medal, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, and Combat Action Ribbon. The Combat Action Ribbon should remain the sole unit or campaign award recognizing units engaged in combat.
As a tradition-bound service, it is interesting to see how far we have strayed from our fellow sea services (e.g., British, Canadian, and Australian). We need a system that commemorates and recognizes the exceptional. Eliminating naval officers' eligibility for all but ten of today's 70-plus awards is one rather dramatic option that would recognize the uncompromising character of those most sacred awards, and ensure that for an act to be commemorated with a medal on a Navy officer's uniform it must be of an exceptional nature.
Lieutenant Commander Shanower is assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence.