DoD Creates the R(EMF) Device
As TAH reader D indicated in his comments to a recent article, DoD has completed a comprehensive review of military awards and decorations policies. A summary listing all the changes to be made as a result of the review can be found here..
Most of them seem to make at least some sense. However, one of them rather “jumped out” at me when I saw that summary. Check out this change, which apparently will be implemented PDQ (emphasis added):
Remote Operations
19. As the impact of remote operations on combat continues to increase, the necessity of ensuring those actions are distinctly recognized grows. Accordingly,the Department will create a “R” device that may be affixed to non-combat performance awards to specifically recognize remote but direct impact on combat operations.
20. The Department will adopt a common definition of “Direct Impact on Combat Operations” for purposes of recognizing remote impacts on combat operations through award of the “R” device.
If you’re thinking that sounds kinda familiar . . . well, if you’re a longtime TAH reader it should. Take a look at this article from somewhat over 2 1/2 years ago.
Yep. Looks like DoD is implementing my recommendation, whether they realize it or not.
The 5-sided asylum can give the “R” device whatever formal title they like. But whatever they call it, I claim the vernacular/common slang “naming rights” to it. It’s the REMF device.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Big Pentagon
It’s so unfair. They’re going to reward REMFs, but not POGs and certainly not Shore Duty Pukes (SDPs). Just completely unfair.
Should be the SFC JONN LILYEA AWARD… I would hire a knowledgeable military Attorney about copyright infringement… I know one….no, he can’t practice..
Hondo, my bad…should of been called THE HONDO AWARD
Or Nonners! lol
A continuation of “Shinseki-ism” where everyone got a beret, not unlike the “everyone gets a hug and a trophy regardless” crap we see infecting a lot of other places! Maybe we could call it the “Little Ralphie” device?
Great. Now we’re issuing participation trophies.
Next we’ll have unit “coming out” parties. I fully expect to see a common “gender-neutral” uniform in the near future. It will go along with the instructions handed down recently by SecNav to remove all gender-specific terms from Naval use.
I’m hoping that the next administration will put adults back in charge of things.
They’re called jumpsuits, dear.
And I am NOT giving up my over the shoulder boulder holders. Period.
At least you have something to put in them. Only when pregnant and breastfeeding and then someone stole them?
But I already have an “R” device it stands for retired.
Thank God for the DD-214.
R as in almost Reb? Retired sounds better..
I think this is for Drone operator types who kill with the push of a button.
No, for COD types that kill at the push of a button.
Meh.
With the extraordinary exception of medals and awards for bravery, I think all awards are bullshit.
I have a few ribbons in my ribbon bar and they are nothing compared with the respect of my peers and seniors.
The bullshittery of awards really hit home as I watched the HBO mini-series “The Pacific.”
Marines survived, barely survived multiple campaigns like Peleliu and Okinawa and simply came home with their lives.
My father survived the North African, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns, as well as the hell of Montecassino and came home simply with his life.
And they were all grateful as hell. They didn’t give a shit about awards.
I did some good stuff, but I didn’t need some silk on my chest to know I did.
Therefore, my MEH! R device, no R device. Who cares?
I’m with ya Mustang. Between 1987 and 2012 I acquired 5 rows of ribbons. Most of them are “thanks for showing up” awards, basically the military equivalent of a participation trophy. They don’t mean a hell of a lot but they’re sure pretty.
The one thing that meant the most for me I got from my Deployment to Iraq back in 04. The guys from 10th Group gave me two coins for taking care of their NOD’s and their SGM gave me a 2nd Battalion 10th group t-shirt as their way of saying thanks.
The ribbons were meh, I saw senior NCO’s getting bronze stars for doing their job on the FOB, and ARCOM’s and AAM’s being given to lower enlisted for saving peoples lives when they rushed to the gate after we got hit with a VBIED.. It turned my stomach knowing that SFC Fobbit got his bronze star because he was kissing the right ass…
Don’t worry, in 3ID everyone that leaves Fort Stewart honorably gets a decoration. An E-5 in my company that has failed a few APFTs in a row (and by fail, I mean 29 sit-ups and run times over 21:00) but wasn’t flagged for some reason received an AAM as he’s about to PCS. He was given a Certificate of Achievement but Division wouldn’t let him out process without a medal. A few of us, myself included, have been vocal about only wanting a CoA at most. Guess it’ll be yet another oakleaf cluster instead.
That “R” device on
“Division wouldn’t let him out process without a medal…”
Holy shit! What the fuck has happened to our military!
When I was an XO, I outbriefed with every Sailor leaving the command. One young man challenged me as to why he didn’t get a Navy Commendation Medal for his tour.
I simply said, “End of meeting. Have a nice life.”
I never looked for awards. Hell, I sent back my retirement award cause I hated my last boss that much. Such mindsets just boggle the mind.
“Holy shit! What the fuck has happened to our military!”
The same thing that’s happened to our education system, and our federal gov, and just about every aspect of our lives…
The Long March.
Specific to the military, the Clintonistas have definitely left their mark.
Try law enforcement.. How the hell can a women who weighs? Run and jump a fence. I could fit three of me in her uniform and still have room for a kid. Fat lazy but bilingual… Bullshit…
Hondo,
There appears to be much more good than bad in the recommendations; though, I will reserve final judgement until the good ideas are written down in DOD Policy Directives and Service Regulations.
Reviewing all the Silver Star and above awards for possible upgrade I believe is a decent idea, if it heads off having to do individual reviews many years later.
Tightening up the criteria for the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service, while creating a distinguishing device for meritorious service that was accomplished at less personal risk is likewise a good compromise (though I personally would have preferred that DOD hadn’t authorize peace time awards in HF/IDP areas to start with). {The “C” devise is pretty close to ex-PH2’s idea for a POG device IMHO.)
The R(emf) device is a decent compromise in recognition for folks impacting the battlefield from far away, though I can easily see the USAF try to push this beyond what the other services will (see the Kosovo Bronze Star fiasco).
Yeah, L4C – I’m quite familiar with the history of the 1999 Kosovo BSM Fiasco.
Yes, some of the recommendations there are good ones. But the problem is essentially self-inflicted. We’ve established “combat zones” that are far larger than reality dictates, kept them in place too long, and managed to screw up the interim fix royally.
The best solution for this whole mess I can think of would have been for most of SWA and Central Asia to have lost combat zone status about Jan 2004, with that designation restricted to places where, you know, there was a significant threat of hostile action. We didn’t do that.
The second best solution would have been to allow peacetime awards, but to have required the approving commander to certify in writing that the individual did not serve in an location with any significant threat of injury due to enemy action – and to make that finding rebuttable by the individual if he/she can present evidence to higher HQ or HRC that such a threat in fact existed. Either of those would have prevented most if not all of bullsh!t award games and injustices I saw in-theater.
In my view, the R and C devices are completely bogus and unnecessary. People know why they received an Achievement, Commendation, or Meritorious Service Medal (or LOM, for that matter) – and the citation should indicate the reason as well. They also know if they served in an area where they could have been injured or killed by enemy action.
IMO, only those who did the latter (e.g., served in a part of a “combat zone” where there was a bona fide threat of coming home in a box) and came home with a peacetime decoration have any right to complain – and Commendation Medals count as wartime awards, just like the BSM. (For some services, the same is true of the Achievement Medal, though not for the Army.)
Combat zone designation lunacy goes back further than 2004. In 1993, Kuwait was still considered a combat zone, tax free status. Somalia was not. Never did understand that.
SFC D: IMO it’s called “lack of backbone on the part of those calling the shots regarding making an unpopular decision even when it’s the right thing to do.”
It should be fairly simple to designate a “hostile fire pay” zone.
1- Are people attempting to shoot and/or blow you up? Y / N
If (Y), you are entitled to hostile fire pay and all awards awarded for service under hostile fire.
If (N), get over it.
Agreed. After about Jan 2004, IMO about the only areas in SWA and/or Central Asia that should have been part of any combat zone would have been Afghanistan, Iraq, the immediate border regions of friendly nations bordering the above nations (e.g., within 20km), the HOA nations, and Yemen. I might be talked into Israel, Pakistan, and Jordan based on terrorist threat.
The others IMO were combat zones in name only. I mean really – offshore in the eastern Med was “combat zone duty”? WTF?!
October 1994 I went to Kuwait, Camp Doha. Still tax exempt and qualified you for the last campaign star on SWASM.
Can confirm that. Sitting on a ship in the Persian Gulf doing circles getting tax free money.
Next month in Somalia, no tax free money. WTF?
Absolutely agree that the problems were self inflicted over many years, and I sure don’t disagree that the combat zone designation has been warped beyond recognition (example, Kuwait is part of the combat zone while Syria and Lebanon are not) and have remained in place way to long.
IMHO the combat zone should automatically expire after 24-36 months unless specifically renewed by a new executive order (a process which is already in place for the 9/11 National Emergency which get renewed yearly).
I try not to forget that we are conducting GWOT operations in 10 countries were service members are authorized HF/IDP but are outside the limits of the “combat zone”, so I’m perhaps willing to take a more nuanced view at times.
Completely agree with CZ designations expiring after 24 mo w/o affirmative extension.
Areas declared HF/IDP in my book should be considered on par with a CZ. We really don’t do that. And areas so designated IMO should receive the same scrutiny (and have the same automatic expiration) as CZs.
I did forget Syria. That probably needs to be designated a CZ too – if we’re going to “go there”. Lebanon? Politically probably not do-able unless we want to occupy the place. Deploying through Israel would be a political “NO GO”, and I rather doubt the Lebanese govt would give us the OK to deploy through their territory.
As DOD included Lebanon as part of the Operation Inherent Resolve AOR (and authorized award of the GWOT-EM for service there: http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/605256/dod-authorizes-global-war-on-terrorism-expeditionary-medal-for-operation-inhere) I’ll make the assumption that some people are doing somethings in the country.
As I seem to remember, when Congress changed HF/IDP from a monthly pay to by day pay in 2012, they also required that DOD positively re-certify locations on a 24 month basis. Unfortunately, as the CZ legislation is part of the tax code it falls under a different set of committees in each Chamber, and changing the tax code is administratively more difficult.
Ah, but did you know this about the the Kosovo BSM clusterf*ck? USAFE received the FOIA from Air Force Times for copies of all the Bronze Star citations. So, they promptly complied. One problem, they forgot to check the classification of the citations and thus revealed the name of one particular pilot.
Perhaps it was considered a good idea only because of the necessity of acquiring talent for these types of operations.
I understand it seems somewhat unseemly under the circumstances, but I wonder it this is being considered as a method to apply a benefit to this career path that will encourage more talent to take this path as opposed to avoiding it because it’s a death sentence to a career.
VOV: if you’ve been following military personnel matters recently, it appears that serving in-theater and in combat is no longer particularly career-enhancing. In fact, those who did that and didn’t get the “key assignments” or required schools appear to be at somewhat of a disadvantage these days.
I don’t know if that is causation at this point, given that nearly everyone that could/should serve in the theater has done so, leaving things such as required schooling or key assignments to be of high importance again.
Realy? Does the name “SGM King” ring a bell?
It does, but I don’t recall when she was actually selected for promotion to E-9 (it might have been as early as 2002-2003 according to the bio on Wikipedia). The fact that she shammed after that (perhaps because further promotion was no longer at risk) is somewhat of a separate issue.
Lack of deployment time doesn’t seem to have hurt her with respect to getting nominative assignments. I seem to remember she had a couple of those before she stepped on her . . . self and got removed from her last position – which was also nominative and quit prestigious.
Hondo, This is because while all her peers were busy with Missions and Combat OPs. She had plenty of time to call the detailers and some Brass for recomendations to land plum jobs.
We have a winner.
So, in other words – her avoiding deployments gave her and advantage over her peers who deployed. Or, alternatively, her peers who deployed were at somewhat of a disadvantage.
I’d put the blame more on the folks who chose her for those nominative positions, which by definition have multiple candidates.
If O’bummer and the boys keep up their current shenanigans with respect to the SJW concept endangering the military, this will become common place.
I wonder if she is pregnant yet?
GT, her bio says she was born in 1961.
If anybody is hitting her now, it’s probably someone who is vision impaired and wears BCG’s.
Claw.
They are called Infantry Privates!
GT, that’s why I said “anybody” could be hitting it.
They don’t necessarily have to be male./smile
She is still playing the victim card nicely. And tries to keep the Wikipedia page cleansed of thought crimes from others.
From personal experience, I’ll echo Hondo’s comment. In my little community, retention seems to be inversely proportional to the amount of time spent in theater. It was interesting to see the LTC with a CIB and 4 overseas service bars who was pending a REFRAD forced retirement attending the promotion ceremony for an LTC universally recognized as mediocre on her promotion to COL. The new COL had the benefit of a combat patch from a CA unit in Desert Storm and no OSBs, and assignments working for GOs while not making it to war since the 1990s.
Here we go again with the Grunts that answered the call being ignored in favor of the gazelles that either stayed in the rear or Stateside and went to school instead of combat.
“… For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;…”
“Yes it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
But Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!”
The old Brit could certainly write.
everybody gets a trophy
It will just turn into another check the block based on rank, just like all those BS Bronze Stars the S/G shop FOBBITS got for doing nothing but sitting in the A/C with their own internet connection and making PX runs.
“This one time on the FOB, Green Beans ran out of no fat soy. My latte was disgusting. I could barely make it through Salsa Night at the MWR…..”
I feel sorry for these people who get heaps of military awards and then leave the military, expecting to get more participation awards… and it doesn’t happen. Maybe a raise, maybe a good review, but no ribbons, medals or trophies.
And what happens to their egos if they start participating in real sports like winter biathlon, where you only get a medal or ribbon if you score higher than the rest of the pack? Or cat shows, where the judges may or may not like your dearest pet? Or ice hockey, where you get roughed up by the opposing teams?
The real world is a rough, hardhearted place. I feel some sort of uh, sympathy(?) for these poor souls when they get there, but it does explain why some of them stay in USGOV jobs. The real world is just too hard. 🙁
They are also coming out with an “A” device to recognize those in combat arms who almost made it to war during the last 15 years but…uh….um “never had the opportunity”.
I know a couple of those types I’m recommending for the big green “A”!
Its seems the DoD is taking a page out of ROTC.
Glad I am out.
Not that it matters, for I am retired, but I would never afix that R to anything on my rack. I would be embarrassed.
I have thrown/launched a RAVEN before.
Does that count?
I write Jonn up for one deserving award and now everyone wants to take it from him.
The only modification I recommend they do is use this as the device:
http://image.ec21.com/image/telescope1985/oimg_GC04602820_CA04602821/8x32Binoculars_Compact_Binoculars_Pink_Binocular.jpg
Does this mean a former Marine will finally get his PH and BSM w/V that he has been pursuing all these years?
Ok everyone want’s to talk about Combat operations. We do have other type of operations that put you at risk just like combat zones. Hondo covered most of them but forgot a few. You forgot Columbia and some other country’s down there we are conducting Civil Humanitarian missions in now will those be R’s fuck know they better not be. All you direct combat guy’s always raise hell about this shit when combat is going on . What about those that go in after an earthquake in like I don’t know Haiti and what bout going into Japan to take readings we sent a 10 man team up there with a Marine CBRNE team. Also Hurricane recovery teams in third world nations. There are plenty of times and missions other than combat were troops risk their lives and bust their ass. When you are not at war you do not deploy. The Marines and Navy will always deploy and there are Navy guy’s that have to work on the ground and sleep on the ground.
I am not a Direct action guy but have seen mine and busted my ass and in some cases lived in worse conditions then others. So think before you just say combat shit. Have two CAR’s earned under the old USMC doctoring, so I can speak a little. Have a CAB with JTF vehicle hit by an IED but I do not think that is direct combat like the CAR’s.
CA missions that we do are not easy either…
There seems to be this weird culture in the military that if your job didn’t “sound Rambo” enough, or whatever, then your life was automatically never in danger and therefore you deserve no recognition.
I was a company-level augment when deployed, went outside the wire frequently, and even encountered an IED or two. Yet you will never know this by looking at my ribbon rack, as those who get a combat action award pretty much only get it if they return small arms fire at an enemy – even if that engagement is only for 10 seconds the entire deployment.
This current generation is full of people who answered the call of duty at varying degrees of personal risk, with recognition being completely out of their control. POG, REMF, Grunt, SOF guy, they served and probably worked long hours for a litany of reasons.
I also found after leaving the military that nobody really cares what your MOS was or what your awards were. Whether you were a waterdog who never deployed or recon ninja with 5 deployments, civilians are equally impressed by us. It’s all about how you articulate that experience to improve your livelihood on the outside. If you can’t do that, all you’ll have are memories and the GI Bill. You can get all the medals in the world but will have to pay the same amount for a morning cup of coffee as everybody else.
Well said brother. Somebody built all the KOP’s and outpost and SF VSP’s and in some cases under fire. Also when combat ops are being conducted there are Civil Humanitarian Mission being conducted outside the wire at the same time. It kills me sometimes all this combat arms shit when you also have to do other missions in harms way. The reason we do CA missions is so we can either stop the war from starting and or prep the battlefield to door thumper’s advantage. combat force multipliers.
Adding to that…Is there anybody here who can honestly say they were a drone operator in the Air Force? I’m going to guess not, because if there was, that individual would probably give us an idea of what it’s really like to be one besides the sitting down and button pushing parts. Long hours, high stress, staring at screens for hours on end without being able to even take a piss or look away for a few minutes, being directly responsible for killing the enemy while saving soldiers (or watching them die if you fuck up)…deployments galore. You come back from deployment, you’re expected to go again right away due to the public perception that your job is easy and “cushy,” so you should be able to hack it – when the people who decide that haven’t spent a day in the life, but think the only possible way your job can be hard is if you’re in a ground combat environment because of what they saw on Saving Private Ryan.
It’s like when I was a recruiter for the Marine Corps. With a combination of a toxic work environment ala Glengarry Glen Ross, 90 hour work weeks, constant pressure to sell, a crumbling family life brought on by the stress and long hours, hostile parents, teachers, and applicants, the boss telling you you’re a POS day in and day out, and still failing because of other people – after doing everything 100% right – I was more than ready to head back to a ground unit in Iraq after only 5 months of that nonsense. But you can’t really complain to anybody or quit, because you’re on the bag for 3 years whether you want to be or not. Even if you explained everything to your closest friends, they would think you’re just bitching despite having a “cushy desk job.” Having a hard yet thankless job nobody really understands can be a depressing and isolating experience.