It is certain that many in the service feel the same way in regard to service ribbons. Few officers are in the Navy primarily for pay and allowances. The majority are in the service for what these “bits of ribbon” stand for.
The strenuous routine of present-day naval activities offers scant opportunity to officers to win medals. Yet the efforts over and above the ordinary call of duty that officers expend in order to win the battle efficiency pennant for their ships or to lead their individual turrets and broadsides to winning an “E,” or to lead their black gangs in winning the Engineering “E,” are certainly on a par with, and just as deserving as war-time efforts resulting in decorations. All officers are potential candidates for the Congressional Medal of Honor—it is only necessary for opportunity to knock.
While successful hours of extra work and strenuous application on the part of officers result in letters of commendation, still there is no visible reward for their success. Enlisted men receive prize money and the privilege of wearing the Navy “E” on their sleeves for excellence in performing their duty.
Recently a step forward has been made in the reward for excellence in small arms. At last officers and men have an opportunity to wear visible proof of their proficiency. To many minds the right to wear the ribbons for expert rifleman and expert pistol-shot qualification is much more highly prized than the Yangtze or Nicaraguan Campaign Medals. The former is the reward for hours of individual practice, culminating in success, while the latter many times merely indicates that the wearer was fortunate enough to be at a certain place on a certain ship at a certain time.
It is believed that a suitable medal somewhat similar to the small-arms medals given to officers who receive letters of commendation for individual excellence in either gunnery or engineering, would contribute to still greater efficiency in the Navy by the inspiration such medals would provoke. Such a “bit of ribbon would be proudly worn in full realization of duty well done. And the presence of such ribbons would offer eloquent and silent testimony to others of successful stepping stones along the way of thewearer’s career.
Such medals would be less common than campaign badges as the number of letter® of commendation each year is relatively small; consequently these medals would be most desirable. It is further believed that to make the awarding of such medal® retroactive would be highly desirable. Theaward of such medals to officers now on theactive list who in the past have received letters of commendation would be small enough compensation for their individual contributions to the development of mod' ern gunnery and marine engineering.
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Diplomacy is continually part and parcel of strategy—during peace, during war, and particularly at the conclusion of war. Hence strategy is applied during peace as well as during in gaining advantages that prepare the armed forces for better undertaking the tasks that policy imposes upon them. This one conclusion indicates that strategy is continuous.— Meyers, Strategy.