Question for US veterans: does the ROTC hand out meaningless 'medals'?

[muriel_volestrangler]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by denbot (a host of the Veterans group).

We have this story of a 23 year old Ukrainian pretending to be an 18 or 19 year old high school student:

(CNN)To his Pennsylvania classmates and others, Asher Potts seemed to be the perfect high school student, a national honor society member who was active in his community and a lieutenant in the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps.

But to authorities he is an impostor: not a teenager at all, but a 23-year-old Ukrainian national.

On Tuesday, the Harrisburg Police Department arrested Artur Samarin, 23, on charges of identity theft, tampering with public records and theft by unlawful taking.

Police said Samarin had obtained a driver's license under the name "Asher Potts." He later obtained a Social Security card and additional documents using his fake identity and false date of birth, police said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/25/us/pennsylvania-high-school-impostor/

Illiustrated with this photo of a 'certificate of recognition' in May 2014 from a state representative:



If he was calling himself 17 in Dec 2014, in May 2014 he was claiming to be 16 or 17. But he has a chestful of medal ribbons - 19, as far as I can see. He cannot have earned these in any campaign. Is the ROTC happy with random decoration of chests with someone else's medals? Or do they give them out like scout badges?

[pugetres]

1. I've never served nor was I a ROTC

but here is good link that explains why there can be many, many pins...

http://www.myreporter.com/2014/06/how-do-jrotc-cadets-earn-medals/

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Thanks - that does sound like scout badges, then

It seems surprising that with their military connections, they'd use awards that look just like medal ribbons. It seems to devalue the real thing.

[1939]

2. There are some medals awarded in JROTC

But they are purely local and you do not wear them past ROTC. In addition to my late father's WWII medals is a "best officer" medal from JROTC circa 1931. He kept it in his drawer, but never wore it and it was not a part of his medal rack when he was in the ARNG after the war.

This kid has (among other "real" medals a Vietnam Campaign medal with two battle stars.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Thanks - at first I thought he was wearing a World War One Allied Victory Medal

(which I have in my grandfather's medals), but I see the 'rainbow' is reversed - the WW1 one has red in the middle,and his had red at the edges:

[gladium et scutum]

4. HSJROTC

does hand out some unique medals for accomplishments in organization. They are only worn in high school and have no standing (cannot be worn) out side of JROTC. They are never suppose to be worn once a person enters the College level ROTC program or the regular armed services.

[MADem]

5. The idea behind giving medals to children in Junior ROTC is to teach them how to wear medals, not

that they mean anything.

[The River]

7. They Sell Replacement Medals

and ribbons on-line. No proof of eligibility needed.
They also sell commemorative "look a likes".
No way he earned them.

[1939]

9. Go to the Medals of America site

You can order yourself a rack that will drive all the girls crazy. Just use your credit card.

Welcome home, River.

[Nitram]

8. The military awards a lot of medals that are just recognition for participation.

Called campaign medals. Automatically awarded to anybody who was involved in a particular campaign.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

10. Medals are a very touchy topic in the military...

... and much of the fault lies with the military itself.

There are just too many decorations overall that are issued for simply complying with orders of a routine nature.

There are medals for showing up, not getting into trouble, and for finishing a project that needed to be finished anyway.

In my opinion, the only 'medals' that should be issued for doing all that is one's paycheck.

You want to see medals that were earned?

Google: Lee Ann Hester and Monica Lin Brown


I was involved in a program similar to JROTC, with the emphasis on getting inner city students qualified for the military. They never wore anything fancier than BDUs - which specifically had a retired camo pattern - and medals were distinctly different than the real deal.

[Victor_c3]

11. I'm kind of getting away from the original topic here, but I pretty much agree with you

mostly.

I was a platoon leader in 2004 and I was in a position to give and write awards for the Soldiers in my platoon. I got into big fight with battalion over a bunch of medals I put my Soldiers in for. At the beginning of our deployment a bunch of guys in HHC totally redid the TOC and spread a bunch of wire all over our FOB. They were put in for ARCOMs as that was the lowest award that was going to be given out by my division. So a few weeks later my platoon was involved in a 24-hour firefight in which we killed 26 and wounded 75.

It was a total shit-storm. One of my vehicles got hit with 10 RPGs, and I personally evacuated two wounded Soldiers under fire while the commander of the company I was attached to that day froze up and wouldn't make a decision or answer his radio for more than an hour. That guy, CPT Davenport (I don't remember his first name, but if I recall correctly he was the commander of C / 1-6 FA BN / 3 BDE / 1 ID) was a total piece of shit and was relieved of command the next day. He kept 3 platoons held up inside of a walled compound while he left my platoon outside of the perimeter to provide security for him. The original plan was that he was going to send a platoon to make and maintain contact with enemy elements, fix them, and then my platoon would go in for the kill. I have no idea why he didn't follow his initial plan. A wave of guys would come up and attack us, we would return fire and fuck 'em up, they'd break contact, retreat, regroup, then come attack us again a little while later. Waves of this went on all day. I was ordered to keep my platoon put instead of maintaining contact, pursuing them, and crushing them.

After seeing that laying commo wire on a FOB was worthy of an ARCOM, I put 20 guys in my platoon in for Bronze Stars and my Platoon Sergeant in for a Silver Star. Needless to say battalion downgraded them all to ARCOMs and we were all thoroughly pissed. Apparently laying commo wire inside of the perimeter of a FOB is on par with shooting, killing, and stuffing body bags.

However, I did learn a valuable lesson about writing awards from that experience. Nobody outside of the Army has any idea what different medals are. The only thing that gives anyone any indication about the value of the award is the actual citation that goes with it. Regardless of what the medals were ultimately downgraded to I went out of my way to write the best citations I could so that one day the grandkids of my Soldiers could be proud of the men that they were. They'll be able to show their families what they did and went through and the type of people they were.

The only award that I have actually means anything to me is my CIB. I'm sure I got my BSM mostly because of my rank and position. I didn't do anything more worthy of a BSM than any of my subordinate Soldiers did. The driver and gunner of my Bradley Fighting Vehicle did the same exact crap I did but received ARCOMs while I got a BSM. In my opinion, that is a bunch of b.s.

To add further insult to injury, I lost a Bradley Fighting Vehicle 6 months later. 5 of the 7 guys in the vehicle were killed. The guys who died all received BSMs. However the two guys that lived got ARCOMs. The only difference was that the 2 guys who lived survived the ordeal. All 7 of them went through the same experience. Honestly, I thought all 7 of them were dead when I saw them. I didn't think there was anyway anyone could survive what I saw. In my opinion they all should have received the same BSM for their service award.

Military awards suck and just piss me off.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

12. It would be bad form...

...to hijack this post, but I have to take this time to thank you for your service.

Being in the Guard, I have not been deployed overseas, but I am thankful for the opportunity to be involved in many major events that have hit this nation over the past 20 years.

To stay on topic, one of the last missions I was on before retirement was search and rescue after Sandy.

I volunteered to take a platoon into the housing projects throughout Brooklyn for a 2 week-long mission - and search for residents - many old and/or disabled - who needed food and other supplies brought to them. We also accompanied medical personnel who were told not to go in without LE or military

I know we saved many lives on that trip - many older people, but many children as well.

A platoon of guys were invited to actually meet the mayor of NYC - and personally receive awards from him - along with a spread in the New York Times.

Not us, of course. It was the guys manning the TOC that were invited. All we got was to go home.

But it was my guys who got the hugs from the moms when we brought boxes of food up 18 flights of stairs so their kids could eat.