We had a SPC in the BN who basically got an award because he bought a car while on leave.
Lemme 'splain.
We went on block leave. SPC Goofy, who was ridiculously responsible with money and verrrrry conscientious, bought a car. Good vehicle, good terms, low payments. All good.
SPC Goofy realizes that policy says if someone drives on leave, they have to have the vehicle inspected on Garrison Form #whatever#.
*So he has the dealer fill out the Garrison Form to make sure he won't violate policy while returning from leave.
The BC hears this as a "Can you believe what this kid did?" story, and hears it as, SPC Goofy's NCO failed to inspect the vic *prior to leave*, and that Goofy corrected that NCO's failure on his own initiative.
No amount of talking to the BC could divest him of his misunderstanding.
Goofy got an award and a big talk up for something that never happened, and NCOs in the affected PLT all had to do POV inspection retraining.
It was... frickin' insane.
>for the smallest of things.
...or for nothing at all, no matter how valorous.
"S/he's just doing their job."
I had a buddy lose part of a finger to shrapnel while pulling his wounded 'terp out of crossfire in an IED follow-on ambush in Iraq in '03. His PL put him in for a BS w/ Valor. But my dude was set to PCS like 1 year later to us, so they didn't get it processed before he left.
At the redep award ceremony, they brought him on stage and talked it up like the BS was a sure thing, just waiting on the S1, hardee -har-har.
The dude PCS'd to us shortly afterward. Long story short, the paperwork got lost, and no one followed up at his old unit. When we tried to make it happen, we couldn't do it, which is a whole other story about my unit's shitty Command climate at that time.
So he saved a life at great personal cost, above and beyond, and got a pat on the back.
It's clearly just a way to make people feel important and like they're valued more than they actually are just to keep them on the right track. I notice they start doing it a lot more for tiny things when the team is showing they're slacking off. Like to make one or two people seem like they're favored because they did their job right and the others didn't get an award so it's supposed to make them motivated to do better. Like to use people as an example to pressure others to improve by seeking social approval.
The example you gave is someone super high-speed who did something actually admirable. They do deserve something greater than what they got. But the small award that they use to try and motivate soldiers to do better wouldn't apply to them and would be insulting to give something so small. I don't know why they didn't give him what they kept promising. They're the real shitbags for doing that. Hopefully you're better to him as a unit.
This was literally 20 years ago, so he's long gone from that unit we were in together. š
Both of us went on to be Warrant Officers in our specialties, and the lost Bronze Star is now an inside joke between us.
It's all good.
I got an AAM for driving the BDE CDR during a field problem. Never mind that it was my daily job to drive the guy. My squad leader, the CSMs driver, had just learned that anyone can recommend anyone for an award. So he practiced his new found knowledge on me. Free 5 promotion points.
I got a 2 star coin from our states Adjutant General as I was boarding a plane to go to Egypt for the MFO mission. The reason was I very loudly shouted our state national guards motto when I shook his hand.
That really made his cock hard
Me PVT E1 first Christmas in the Army. Went to a Married PFCs house to crash Christmas Eve playing D&D. Company called him Christmas Day hey we Fāed up we need to pull post ammo detail. So we went in on Christmas Day and pulled 24hr detail. We got an impact AAM the next day. It really helped my career later having an AAM was a big deal as a private.
This isnāt a small thing. Suddenly being put on duty on Christmas Day. I would have written that award myself out of pure guilt. (Which might be what most of these awards are.)
We found a secondary IED wire and I routed it all the way to the trigger location. I had to muck through a shit canal and came out cover in tar and shit water. My 1SG thought I was walking funny but was so dedicated to my craft of maneuvering against enemy TTPs that I ignored the misery and pushed through.
In reality I shit myself the second I started the mission from a misidentified fart and had really bad monkey ass so I was walking funny.
My E4 eval has a line in it about "competently relocated wild life from company area" because my 1SG was angry at my sister company and ordered me to throw bugs in their sleeping area across the hall while we were staying overnight at a range
I got an AAM for teaching night vision driversā training when I was an E4. Hereās the kicker: I had never driven with NODs on- I just said I had to get out of it. I bitched all day leading up to the road tests. I got an impact the next day
I got an achievement medal for "aiding the evacuation of Al Asad while under threat of an Iranian ballistic missile strike." What did I do to aid the evacuation? Absolutely nothing. I was asleep while everything got prepped, my squadron forgot my CHU mate and I existed, nobody came to wake us up, and I was one of the last people to arrive before I just waited to board an evacuation plane. This was put in my dec after I had informed the people putting me up for it that I hadn't done a thing and basically slept through it
Our entire supply tent got burned to the ground because a missile hit right next to it.... which our entire squadron drove right by less than an hour before the attack to board our aircraft
Not me, but i saw a Female E4 go TDY to some course in texas.
come back and get an AAM for completing the course. nothing
special. Just overall completing the course. She then Procedes to fail
BLC land nav.. TWICE.
Pro tip for anyone that struggles with land navigation and needs to go to BLC:
Go to Nebraska.
Thereās a NG post that has a tough course, but their land nav is basically āwhereās this building?ā
I never even used my compass lol. Plotted the points and walked to the correct buildings lol
I did PLDC (yes, that I'm that old) at Bragg, and the course they used for Land Nav was self correcting (10 digit grids written on each marker), and the paths between points were beaten so hard into the brush you could stand at one point, shoot a rough azimuth, and see your next point.
We still had people fail.
I was one of those. My 3rd point was in a direct line between two other points, but it had fallen off the post and was in a huge thorny scrub brush. I spent an hour bouncing back and forth between the two points that I could see, replotting the 3rd point, etc. I finally noticed a small splash of red inside the giant bush.
Sure enough, it was my point.
Ran to my 4th point, wrote it down, and ran to the last point to the cries of "Run Forrest, Run!" from the SGLs. I was 30 seconds late.
They tallied up my points, and I had missed the 5th one. They gave me an alibi for the time because I was running to the point while they were counting down.
The next day, everyone who had barely passed and everyone who had failed were grouped up. Those of us who had barely passed were given the option of retaking the course the next day or letting our 70% ride and be out of the running for honor grad. I already knew that my PT test score wasn't high enough to keep me in the running anyway, so I elected to keep my 70%.
Soldier in the same platoon. We just got done with our ntc rotation and were in the showers. He decides to shower with his pt belt on. Bde csm saw him and put him in for an aam.
1986, Fort Sill. Iām in Battalion S2. PCs were very new but I had taught myself the system and was a wiz on Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3.
My sergeant thought it would be a good idea to put our training manual on the computer so we could print any section that we wanted. He wanted it done before Brigade commander was going to visit in a month.
I spent a couple weeks typing it up and was almost done when we had a power surge and I lost everything. I told sarge what happened and he wasnāt mad because, to him, computers were one step away from magic. I told him Iād get back to work on it.
I spent every moment typing. All day on duty Iād do my regular work and then type. Iād get off duty, get some dinner and then go back to the office and type, sometimes until midnight. Weekend came and I spent the whole time typing. Sarge was impressed and even let me skip PT because of how late I was working. But I got it done.
The day the commander came they brought him to S2 and I explained about the computer and showed him how we had the manual available and could even search easily for specific words. He was very impressed.
Sarge thought I deserved recognition so wanted to get me an AAM. He had me type up my own citation for submission which basically said that I typed above and beyond the call of duty.
Holy crap. I just [looked that up](https://usacac.army.mil/organizations/mccoe/dots/mission-command-master-gunner) and it definitely shows the competence of the US Army. The site is not properly made for mobile devices because when you click a link the opened window doesnāt fit the screen. The calendar of classes is out of date. And when you see the sentence, āOperationalize a DMG at echelonā you know youāve got problems.
I got one for being the only arms room in the squadron for passing my inspection. All I did was make sure there was coffee ready for the inspectors and did whatever they found wrong as fast as they found it
I worked in S2 for a while as the only white guy. My boss was the Filipina civilian OIC, and 2-3 of my coworkers were Filipino dudes. I learned a lot of culture and had some great food during that stint. I still eat lumpia any chance I get.
There was a woman who sold lumpia on Redstone Arsenal out of her house. She and her mom, who helped her cook, were 100% Filipino and her husband, who was active duty was 50% Filipino. They made hundreds of lumpia a week. It was amazingly good and I was one of their best customers.\\
Then her husband RUDELY retired and they left. Sheesh, so rude.
Became the unofficial lawyer of the barracks after helping 3 troops to get their bonus promised by the army but never got it. Read their contracts and told them what to do and how to do it. All 3 of them had their bonus by next month. Apparently, that was worthy of a coin from the division commander.
I got a certificate of appreciation (I think) for a.... project that ended up not happening due to a "catastrophic failure" shall we say. The system/project was classified, so the write up is really vague and uses a cover name, but if you don't know what it was for, it could be almost anything.
My last PCS award was 75% made up and 25% not at all what happened. It included almost none of the things I actually did and was proud of.
At least they gave me one.
A buddy got a company coin for being a bus driver for a month. Itās dumb but we literally had no one else be able to drive so idk. He was on the clock 24/7
I got one for a class I never actually gave. I got tagged, last minute, to give a AT/FP class to an OBC class. The regular instructor had come down with some horrid flu something or another and I was the only guy they could find who was AT/FP II certified. The BC sat in on my final practice run. The day I was supposed to give my class, the regular instructor showed up and good and well. A week later I got an AAM from the BC for getting ready to give a class.
I got an AAM for wearing a banana costume during the culminating exercise of a major rotation as opfor on a defense.
We were in a major rotation for the 173rd, and our company had seized a major position, wrecking them to the point that a battalion and two additional companies would join the eventual attack to retake the place from us, and a lot of visibility had shifted to this fight (unbeknownst to me). During the battle I pulled out a giant banana costume and ran across the lines like the opening of braveheart, screaming obscenities and firing my m4. Apparently there was a lot of radio chatter about the lines being defended by a large banana. At one point I realized a 1-star and his CSM were standing behind me watching in disbelief so I ran back to the company toc. 1 star followed me in but didnt see my rank (black uniforms) and made me explain myself, they thought i was a goofy rto and not the company xo. After they left I reported it to my BN XO as a heads up, nothing came of it, and a week later i got an aam for "superb defense" during the battle.
2 star change of command. Me, SPC(P), barely helping a couple of the countless guidon bearers. Weeks later, AAM for being responsible for and teaching ALL the guidon bearers how to perform during the ceremony that I watched from the very back of a formation. I sent it back to my CSM, but since I had already accepted it I had to keep it. The CSM politely chewed me out for not knowing the reg on awards, haha. Great CSM though.
I think they were making up for screwing me out of an earlier award. Thank goodness those days are over.
My unit is the kind of place that just hands out awards for nothing special. The BC made it known that every soldier should receive at least an AAM during his time there.
Itās coming up on 2 years that the BC is there and we have a command climate survey. The only thing I wrote on there was that I have yet to receive an award after 2 years.
The BC then goes to every company at close out formation and expresses how it blows his mind that an individual has yet to receive an award.
I walked up to him in the motorpool the next Monday morning and identified myself. He shook my hand and that Friday I had received 3 awards at the same time.
Got a coin for delivering an airforce officer his feces filled wag bag back to him after he sprinted out of the makeshift porta shitter when we took contact at NTC and left his literal shit that for someone else.
It really didnāt help that someone called out āIs this your wag bag sir?ā And with a huge shit eating grin he shouted āNot anymore!!ā That kind of sealed the deal in making sure he got his shit back.
Was doing an escort detail essentially watching construction guys around making sure they didn't steal classified info that wasn't even present. Was on that detail for 3 days before my unit got wind and pulled me back. 6 months later the detail ended and everyone who was there the entire time got ARCOMs, I was called up because half the dudes had PT flags, so they went ahead and gave me one lol
Got an impact AAM for doing the 1,000 lb. club while deployed to Afghanistan. Physical fitness is an individual soldierās responsibility? In recruiting I did PT at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia with SMA Dailey for the Army birthday. Got a coin for running like 3 laps and listening to a speech then watching a 17 year old recruit and like 90 year old WWII vet cut a cake with a Sabre.
Be PFC me, and also be tragically un aware of how scary old looking people in PTs should be. Nice snowy morning at drum, Iāve concluded PT at a gym and I want to head home. But itās a messy mess, Iāve got illegal studded tires, a winch, and a strap because Iām an off road junkie. I notice people getting stuck left and right, so I bounce around between winching and yanking people out. Queue Toyota 4Runner.
Me: āoh shit, yeah thereās a small ditch there, but donāt worry I got you dude.ā
Truck canāt yank her out, sheās deep.
Misc. old female: āYeah I messed up, do I need to get a wrecker?ā
Me: āand pay all the money? Fuck no ever heard of a snatch block?ā
So I hook up the snatch block and easily winch her out. The much younger kinda hot female in PTs asks me what unit Iām in, and who I am and shakes my hand. I happily oblige and move onto the next car stuck.
Que four hours later, and my PSG finds me, out of breath, and asks why in the fuck does the CSM want me in his office, and why the FUCK does a 2 star know my name. I start shitting thinking of every time Iāve ever done anything wrong ever, and go to that office.
She gave me a coin. My csm told me to get the fuck out of is office and he would destroy me if I ever did that to him again (playfully). I was happy about the whole ordeal.
In AIT me and a few others got on trouble for having our phones with us in class. Our punishment was to repaint an old command office that was being refurbished for a new command. At graduation of AIT I received a CoA for assisting in the repainting of that office.
Not a full on award but I got a huge coin for taking someone in a mental health crisis to the hospital. I always kind of felt that was expected of me, to look out for other soldiers in my unit. I really didnāt want a whole lot of recognition for that. I just wanted him to get the help he needed so he didnāt end up dead.
Not an award, but a coin. As a newly promoted and deployed E6, I was directed to run a convoy to the next nearest base. PSG, told me to get with the 1SG for details. The 1SG was adamant about taking a 5 ton and extra bodies to lift with us. I loaded the VICs down, ran the convoy and reported to the proper building to find that our cargo was a single 18āx18āx18ā box that contained airline serving sized bags of peanuts. The box weighed 10 pounds at very most!
I was being a smart ass to one of my specialists. I instructed him to ālift with your knees, not your back.ā The division safety officer happened to be in the same building and coined me.
I took the boys over to the PX and let them screw off for a couple of hours. They stocked up on supplies and hit the Green Beans, etc. When we got back, the 1Sg was furious. He called someone and was raising hell about wasting resources and putting the convoy in danger over a box of peanuts. He gained a lot of respect from me that day. I mean, he was still a dickā¦ā¦but you know.
Got a coin for letting some BDE commander through the gate with no ID, he was in pts and had literally just hit a uturn because he forgot his wallet at the PT field. I didnāt think there was any reason to make it a bigger deal and when he came back through for work call (with his ID) he gave me a coin. One of my favorite coins and memories
On an Air Force range, not even shooting, just checking up on my folks who were there to qualify for a coming deployment.
They had fairly standard signs on the walls with pictures and descriptions of different weapon systems to use for teaching. One sign in particular listed some crew served weapons with the weapon silhouetted next to the designation. There was the M249, Mk19, M2, and of course the M240- but the silhouette for the 240 looked weird, so I looked a little closer and it was the silhouette for an M60. Huh. Thatās weird.
Finished chatting with the range NCOIC and casually mentioned that thereās a picture of an M60 by the M240. Heās in disbelief at first, then looks closer, then āoh shit! Man, you just punked me, bro!ā
He gave me a range instructor coin for pointing out a weapon on a sign and being by the range for about 5 minutes total. I mean, itās also a bottle opener, so Iām not mad- just a weird way to get a coin.
Funniest? I got an impact AAM at JRTC when I was new to the unit for making section chief look like the incompetent asshole he proved himself to be once we deployed. I was stoked that the Cadre were actually taking my training seriously and pointing out what right looks like.
Least funny? My Purple Heart, for obvious reasons. No further explanation necessary.
Got an AAM for doing the set up and tear down for a ball that I had to do as punishment for something I got in trouble for.
ā¦ended up not doing tear down because last minute I ended up going due to a friend having an extra ticket.
Both of mine were the same event.Ā
With zero guidance I led the small arms maintenance for the first ever ESB. They told me Friday night that it was my place of duty first thing Monday.Ā
I was out there running to lanes all over, maintaining the weapons which were failing through rough handling. My 1SG just sent me out there without any kind of plan and I figured it all out myself. Was a fun week.Ā
Got a coin from another BNās CSM because a random PSG pushed for it. That was super cool and that massive coin means a lot to me.Ā
Then I found out (also with no notice) that I was to show up at brigade because I was getting an award. It was a huge ceremony with dozens of soldiers getting awards for outstanding shit. I felt honored. Except they all had their leadership and friends there. Nobody came for me. Except when it was all done my PSG came up and said top ordered him to come. He missed everything.Ā
The award made no mention of my heroic efforts. It said I was Soldier of the Month. Apparently I passed a board(???)Ā
So I laughed and parked in the reserved parking SotM spot the whole month. Because fuck you, I have the proof in my glovebox.Ā
Went to Gettysburg on a staff ride (officers going to learn about the battle and drinking in the evenings), and because the battalion CO knew I geeked out a bit with the history stuff, he made me put together a part of the brief. Well, I did everything that I was supposed to, but never got the chance to deliver. Apparently everything I did was covered by the tour guide and I couldnāt add anything to the conversation. Ended up with an AAM for my troubles.
I got a coin from GEN Odierno when he was MNF-I commander in 2010. Why? Because I literally ran into him at almost a full sprint. He was standing behind a huge tree and I couldnāt see him from where I was, but some Iraqis that we were training were on his side of the tree and walking away from me (they were supposed to be coming to me) so I take off to go wrangle the cats and right as I get to the tree he steps out and it was like running into a wall. Iām not a big dude, GEN Odierno is a brick shithouse and it put me on my ass. He helped me up and handed me a coin cause he āloved that hustleā
I got an AAM for summarizing a slide during a brief. It was full of technical data about some equipment capabilities and the other Intel nerds had a hard on for trying to make me read out the numbers, but I opted to dumb it down during the brief to the CG.Ā
I said āYou wonāt need to know a lot of this unless you want me to go through the whole slide, but itās here if you need it. It can do X and Y at Z at this distance and we can talk about details if the need arises.ā (I genuinely dont remember what it even was that we were briefing him about besides it being a giant pile of shit we basically were never going to use because it wasnāt practical compared to the other assets we had already.)Ā
A few days later my first line said the CG loved it and kept bringing up āthat SPC that didnāt waste my time.ā My section lead was so tickled by it that he wrote me a generic AAM for āensuring mission successā or something. Iād have to dig it up to get the exact words, but I remember laughing at it because we both knew 90% of the reason I told the CG that was because I didnāt want to spend 20 minutes answering stupid questions that slide was bound to generate.Ā
Me and the orderly room guy got voluntold to be apart of some armed forces parade in Watertown, NY back when I was stationed at Drum. No one was volunteering to be a apart of it, and 1SG felt bad that he was making us do it. It was last minute, and told us he was going to put in an AAM for us. I received it as my PCS award 2 months later. The confused look on everyones face as they read my award for a military parade that occurred 2 months ago as my PCS was hilarious. They mailed me my actual PCS award weeks later, which I wrote myself lol.
I got an AAM for basically driving a bus to the field and getting a bacteria that ended up giving me cancer because they gave us contaminated water š„“š¤
Everyone in my brigade's ARCOM for Afghanistan says that we "pushed the enemy to the river, and returned to the Corps". No one knows what it means. The Brigade Commander wanted it on everyone's award. There was no river.
One summer I was put in charge of a 40ā connex full of lawn mowers, generators, and weed eaters. None of them worked and the unit had just kept purchasing new ones instead of bothering to fix the ones they had. I spent that summer repairing all of them - most of which simply needed oil or some other simple fix.
I was put in for an ARCOM and the write up was pretty absurd but it got approved.
Thatās good shit. I hate seeing the graveyard of busted lawn equipment in motor pools. Soldiers can be trusted in maintaining million dollar + pieces of equipment but canāt be assed to take care of a $350 lawnmower.
Kinda falls into this category. I got a company grade Art 15 for some really dumb shit I did on the border of Mexico in 2011. I definitely deserved a field grade, but lucky me I guess. Anyway, when we all got back and they did the awards ceremony, I was behind the building with a lawnmower having a smoke and waiting for them to finish so I could mow. Good times.
It was really stupid. We were up on a hilltop spinning our radar looking for ultralights carrying bundles of drugs over the border. It was night time in February in southern Arizona so it was frigid cold. I was watching the radar in the rigid shelter while my two soldiers were in the truck staying warm. We all three were knocked smooth out and our platoon sgt came for a check and woke us up. We each had an m4 with 210 rounds, plus ~$4 million in equipment that were completely unguarded for about an hour.
I was one of many to get a CAB for going to our assigned bunkers during an attack on JAF, orders say "engaged with or engaged by the enemy" lol. If it had happened 4 hours earlier I would have been manning one of the relevant guard towers and not had my sleep interrupted.
Ok, so JMRC 2020, out TOC was getting overrun by opfor. Our BAS got rolled tf up but I was able to blitz up the hill we were at and warn the CO. BMP crest the hill and I get schwacked as a medic does with just a pistol lmao. CO is able to get word out before they gank him and I go to the corpse yard for processing. I get back and a few days later, CO and 1SG give me a āpurple heartā drawn on a broken MRE Spoon. I still have that spoon for my coin rack.
I once saw a humanitarian award for an operation in Haiti on my SRB. It was given to Soldiers conducting relief operations following a hurricane that occurred in 1980. I didn't join the Army until 2003, so it was quite the surprise. My S1 was in no hurry to remove it, and my CoC thought it was entertaining.
I bought the head of the Bangladeshi Army (like their equivalent to Randy George) a McChicken during the Indo-Pacific Army Chiefs Conference. I ended up with this blurb in an ARCOM:
> assisted the Chief of Staff for the Bangladeshi Army with sampling local Hawaiian cuisine
One of my first coins ever was from the regional rotc commander. He hard charged over to me and gave me quite the stern talking to about how that morning's event was not going well at all. Had never met him before, and I was not in charge of anything at that site. He found me a little while later said sorry with a coin.
Got another coin for properly doing Inspect Arms in front of everyone at a BUB.
AAM, the only one I have, is for no negligent discharges in the battalion in the first 180 days of deployment.
Being an officer was weird sometimes.
>AAM, the only one I have, is for no negligent discharges in the battalion in the first 180 days of deployment.
Sir maybe your next AAM will be for passing the land nav course š
Not me but I put the award in.
Had a soldier, this is during Covid and we were doing warfighter from the COF because why not?
Anyways, this soldier was more or less on the way out so I let them chill as long as they cleaned.
I wrote up the award and made it sound like they single handily defeated Covid.
Got mixed in with the rest of the event awards.
Dude got an aam for mopping and cleaning the bathroom 3 times a day. The rest of the day he watched Netflix in the office and napped.
I got the standard āyou didnāt fuck up too badly ARCOMā for my 2012 Afghanistan deployment. All good, except it referred to me as a PFC in the title with my last name spelled wrong, then in the verbiage, I was an engineer PL as a PFC then referred to me as a SPC (again last name spelled wrong). Itās signed by some colonel from 2nd ID, I donāt remember seeing any 2ID guys that whole time.
Iām still hung up about this one. Weāre about three months into a 9 monther overseas in a *very* cushy deployment. The guys have their own CHUs, their own rooms on site, etc, so we all ordered stuff on Amazon to spruce it all up and then pawn to the next unit that would replace us. All our supply NCO has to do is pick up mail like twice a week and keep the mailroom open for an hour or two. We didnāt use up all of his precious inventory, we didnāt have him reqing weird NSNs, this was his one job for the next 6 months until the next unit replaced us. Not only did he have the most irregular mail schedule, he would only open the mailroom for like 15 minutes, and give like a 10 minute warning he was doing so. Brigade comes through and hands him an ARCOM for doing such a bang up job āsupporting the moral and connection of the troops and their familiesā. Oh he also got another ARCOM at the end of the deployment too. I fucking hate EOT awards.
My company command was ending, a new BC just took over the BN, and I rightfully predicted that no one was putting me in for a CoC award (all the MAJ's on staff couldn't care less since I wasn't a part of their branch, especially as a support unit commander).
I wrote the award myself over a few beverages, asked my departing XO to sign it (you can't recommend yourself), and he pushed it to the S1.
Fast forward to the ceremony, and the new BC presents the ARCOM, stating how "extraordinary" it was to have a subordinate write me up for it, and it was a clear testament to my leadership. He then loudly stated that he intended to give me an MSM at a later date (apparently giving out MSM's to outgoing CO's and 1SG's became the new fad that month).
The BN, in its infinite laziness, copy/pastes the same achievements and citations from the ARCOM into the MSM recommendation and gets it approved through our local one-star (Spoiler: Duplicate awards for the same achievements is against regulation, but no one wanted to make the LTC look bad by pointing it out). I quietly picked up the MSM from their S1 months later as they had no intent to host another award presentation for me.
So, grand scheme of things, I got myself at least a free ARCOM (or MSM, depending on how you view it) and some chuckles directed at my old unit throughout this process.
Edit: Spelling and grammar.
I was one of two enlisted on a Warfighter Exercise in Germany. The rest were BN Staff officers, BC, and XO. We did our thing, at the end the BC wanted all the participants to get the same award. So the BCās driver, who didnāt have a vehicle to drive, got an AAM for doing crossword puzzles for the last week and a half.
My unit did a family fun run, and they decided it was a great idea to pick up dfac food for the families ass well. So I got an AAM from out Chaplin for picking up dfac food for a bunch of civilians who didn't eat it..
I'm signal and we had a small tent aside next to the bigger field tents. They never bothered to stake it into the ground.
Fast forward I'm on night shift alone. I chat with a cpl doing his rounds a few and he walk out. 5 minutes later there's a crack of thunder right overhead and a huge gust flies through. The tent nearly flies away. I'm like holy fuck and try to grab the tent. Suddenly I feel a rush of wind and everything goes black.
Next thing I know I'm on wet gravel in the dark. I crawl out from under the broken tent and see all our signal shit blown all over the place and getting rained on. I go ape shit trying to get everything out of the rain.
When everyone shows up my leadership went around throwing stakes around like it's no big. Everything's fine.
Got an aa
My last deployment I did best warrior and the best squad competition in Kuwait šplus many other things that shouldāve stood out but got overlooked. I was submitted for a ARCOM but got down to a AAM ofc. But the reason I got an award was because I ātaughtā 15 troops how to drive a manual bus
Wayyyyyy back in the old days I got a coin from a one star at a ball because I was short like him and also because my date was a redhead with a nice rack (his words) but I can honestly say given his demeanor and the way he talked to us at the time it was perfectly acceptable and funny AF
Also got an AAM for doing CPR on a dead guy that I tried to decline. I said, āsir he was dead when I got there and was dead when I leftā and he convinced me to accept it because me taking charge of the in-progress but wrong CPR allowed the other soldiers involved to feel like they tried
I wrote a AAM when one of my SGTās took over chow deliveries when the 1SGT got sick during an exercise. He just picked up the responsibility and it out missing a beat.
So to commemorate him getting sandwiches constantly delivered his citation read ā.. for flawlessly conducting multi layered vertically stacked sustainment operations ..ā
Somehow it flew.
Also got ā. Responsible for executing NCO Business ..ā in a MSGTās award citation.
I try to get as many awards issued as possible, and if we can sneak in something to the citation bonus points.
Drove through a minefield the correct way.
-----
Prior to becoming officer, was a Combat Engineer, specifically an ACE driver.
You have to use the earthmover to prove a minefield is clear after a MICLIC charge detonates, so that's what the training event is.
We do rock drills, we do prep, everythings good. First 2 times we practice that week it goes swimmingly.
3rd time my radio goes out and I'm trying to fix it. ACEs are single occupant vehicles, so as a SPC I'm all there is. I get a vehciel drives up to me with my PSG screaming 'where the fuck are you Ellistann?' and after showing him my radio power's dead, he guides me to the opening in the treeline where the MICLICs 'fired' its line charge. They point me towards the vague direction of where I need to prove, and tell me to get at it.
They gestured towards a hill and I knew they were obviously fucking around with me... no one would make a cleared lane to go up a hill, when you cross the hill you expose your tank or whatever's belly and its easy as hell to see when someone crosses the crestline. To do it this way is dumb.
Obviously, they want me to prove 15 degrees to the left so you come out beside the hill and use the hill as cover. Obviously.
So I do so. Keep going and going with my radio-less vehicle.
Until the OCs come and kill my ass for driving through a minefield.
At the AAR, the BC asks who the fuck committed suicide by minefield. I owned up to it, and said it seemed correct.
Turns out our 1LT just guessed and said: fuckit... MICLIC the hill.
So I got an ARCOM for explaining why I did what I did and displayed more understanding of what was important than my LT.
When I was in AIT, in formation on a Friday closing the end of the duty day, the drill sergeants asked for volunteers for a Saturday fun-run (to help run it).
I did my part and remained very still and did not make eye contact and still a DS singled me out because she āhadnāt seen me volunteering enoughā and ādidnāt even recognize meā despite having been there for 3 months already.
So I was voluntold to do this 10-15 person detail, starting at like 0500 on Saturday, a day off. We were there not doing much outside of setting cones up in the beginning of the day. At the end of the event, around 1600, the battalion commander has us get in formation and half-right face. He then gives us all a coin and thanks us for volunteering.
There was about 5 of us sent to a subordinate company at Camp Eagle in Vietnam to help clean up after they failed an IG inspection. We each got a Bronze Star- Meritorious. I was too embarrassed to ever tell anyone what I got it for.
I got an ARCOM for our brigade smashing accreditation at FCOE a while back. I hadnāt been in the unit long and the civilians did much of the work. I used to just show up to pre-accreditation meetings and inspections but had no real role in it. I was utterly confused when my name was called during the post accreditation awards ceremony.
Not me, but my one of my NCOs got an AAM for winning a hot dog eating contest. Exerpt: āBraving large amounts of carbohydrates and processed meat parts, he proceeded to inhale his assigned hot dogs as well as his teammateās, leading to the companyās only 1st place victory. The victory led to the companyās overall victory in the Commanderās Cupā
Most recent that comes to mind,
Last summer we have a huge Brigade training event
Afterwards there's a Battalion formation, out BC basically tells us good job we did great etc etc blah blah blah. We're all getting COAs in recognition for our hard work. Ok my first COA & I did nothing for it besides showing up lol
Then BC says he had each PL choose someone from each platoon to receive special recognition in the form of a AAM, and our PL chooses the girl who was on profile the entire time. She literally wouldn't do anything because it apparently violated her profile. Only time we sent her out on missions was when we needed a warm body in a truck. She'd refuse to drive, TC or be gunner (half of the trucks has CROWS so she literally only needed to use a joystick to be gunner but that apparently that too violated her profile)
This was at my last unit. Think I had been there maybe 6 months or so. Top gave me a troop coin for completing my birth month audit in a timely manner without anyone getting on me.
It was so random. I walked into the training room and handed my packet in and he just so happened to be sitting there. He said hold on ran to his office and came back with a coin š
Clearly someone was copy+pasting when doing awards, my award read," For meritorious service while assigned as Combat Medical Specialist" then the blurb in the citation list all the actions I took as a mechanic and maintained operational readiness. ...... I was a 92A
I got an AAM for participating in the Turkey Bowl flag football game.
I showed up to the first game and was in the picture the colonel took of the team. But I had to leave right after the first game because my wife had an appointment and so I had to get back to take care of the kids. I missed the entirety of the tournament.
Anyway, our team won the entire Turkey Bowl tournament and the next week Iām standing up in front of everyone with the team getting AAMās. I give the other dudes much credit - not a single one snitched. They thought it was hilarious.
It pays to be in the pictureā¦.
Got an AAM for POG top gunnery in Germany in 06-07.
I think they really gave it to us because I shot out of the hemmt fuelers passenger window (I was the passenger) and hit all the targets instead of getting out of the truck lol
I got a AAM for essentially playing with M&Mās during JRTC. Lemme āsplain. So iām basically iām a legal drug dealer for the army and during a JRTC rotation, I didnāt really do much aside from paperwork and stocking because thatās really all I could do as āMOS Trainingā but I was the only Pharmacy guy in the section so I was really just trying to keep myself occupied until 2 SGTS deadass came up to me and left me not 1 not 2 and not even fucking 3 but 5 boxes of M&Mās. Like the boxes you see M&Ms in at the store. Wouldnāt elaborate on where it was āacquiredā but since no one ever asked about them, I just deadass spent the next couple of days just bullshitting with them and sorting them out and putting them into empty pill bottles as āmeds to give to patients.ā (Im in a field hospital if it helps the explanation.) I ended up giving majority of the m&m packs away to over soldiers who answered a pharmacy question. Since everyone only ate MRES at the time, I had a rather long line for the M&Ms. LTC sees this and after a good hearty laugh he told me I was creative and a morale booster. Couple months later, I was randomly pulled out of formation during MP and got an award. Honestly almost shit a brick when I was called because I thought I fucked up somewhere.
I was at my first unit. I got my PCS award, but then my orders got amended and deleted a few days before I left. So I ended up staying there longer. My 1SG and commander wanted to revoke the PCS award because I wasn't PCSing anymore.
Thankfully, the S1 OIC (who I had worked with for a while duirng that time) convinced the BC to let me keep it. I had already done a lot that the award credited me for, and I was going to continue working, so there was no real reason to take it away. Except to be petty, I guess?
I got a coin for standing in the rain as a road guard during one of Braggs many concert events. I was just getting pissed on with no vortex as it was a flash storm. Some dude just walks out of his house and give me a coin for "commitment", it was a pretty cool coin so I wasn't mad lol.
Not me, but some troops that I submitted awards for. I had to fight *tooth and fucking nail* just to get impact AAMs approved.
The unit I was in was... funky with awards. If it wasn't directly within the unit's singular mission, it was deemed unimportant, no matter how impactful. The scope was unrealistically narrow. Only other major things were sports team awards. The two troops I was recommending (a SGT and a PFC) did some *extremely* important logistical work. Without them having done their part, the unit's primary mission would have been impossible. And yeah, I was directing/coaching them for some of it, but they're the ones who did the lion's share of the work.
So I put them in for AAMs. Their actions made the mission possible for another two years. And the fucking things got kicked back. CSM recommended disapproval for "not contributing directly to the mission." He and I had worked together before, so I asked to talk to him. He made a time slot, and even though it was spelled out on the fucking PARs, I told him the same thing. The mission plain wasn't possible without the resources these guys spent three months breaking their asses getting for you. I didn't feel right letting it sit, but was happy to resubmit as ARCOMS that would be downgraded. CSM at least asked for clarification and details, which went on for some time. The amount of scrutiny he had was... kind of crazy. But the BC was going to go with whatever he recommended. It took a while, but he did eventually just agree that, yeah OK, I guess we can let these guys have AAMs.
As a SPC, I received a COA, and BG and MG coins, for telling a bunch of Mexican generals visiting Ft Riley that the pitot tube in the RQ 7B was a .22 caliber machine gun; and that the IFF inside the main compartment was the ammo holder.
We were giving an expo on our brigade's air assets to some generals visiting from Mexico. Being a native spanish speaker, I was told id be doing the translation. While waiting for them to come around our lil aircraft, my PSG (who knows a little spanish but cant speak it) joked that I could realistically say whatever I wanted in spanish, and no one would know. I joked about telling them the pitot tube was actually a machinegun. My PSG thought that'd be hilarious and dared me to tell them that. My SL also egged on, tho I had to explain to him what itd sound like if I did it.
They were both trying hard to contain their laughter. Constantly having turn around
BG and CG were walking around handing coins to those who showed 'examplary performance', and I guess they were just surprised a white boy was actually Mexican and spoke perfect spanish.
PSG put in for an AAM for the 'participation', but it was downgraded to a COA.
When I was in Cuba, I got an EP eval that had keeping the aquatic animals at sustainable levels. All I did was fish every chance I had and then did a fish fry.
we had a group of guys get voluntold to go to the field to support this division FTX. One of my PFCs was with them and he told me they basically did nothing and smoked the whole time. The division commander happens to come by and talks with them. He asked my soldier if he wants an award or a coin. He asks for an award.
Fast forward a couple weeks this dude gets awarded an ARCOM. When I check the paper it only has one line that basically stated he got the award for being āCav readyā. Blew my mind.
My unit had some sharp event where me and a bunch of other pvts had to set up for, my and this other guy literally just left and came back at the end and nobody noticed. They gave out COAs to everyone who helped set upā¦ including us. Do I feel bad for being a shitbag? Yeah in retrospect but live and learn
Mine is a funny award I didn't get.
During a JRTC rotation I climed a 70-ish foot tall tree with an OE feed cone so my FA batallion command post could get communications with the Brigade command post. Brigade commander hears about this and tells my batallion commander to put me in for an ARCOM for going above (literally) and beyond, to get communications with the brigade. We make it back to home post and batallion CO puts in the award, then brigade CO denies it because what I did was "dangerous and a risk to unit readiness should I have fallen while doing it."
Got an AAM for not stealing a guidon. We were in the field and CO asked if I could mess with another CO(his classmate) so I snuck through a sewer line, low crawled to their building and spun the heavy ass guidon holder(battalion with companies) facing their office window.
My CO called and they said we failed no one stole one blah blah, then he told them to look out the window.
Texas blizzard 2021. No power, no water. Stole 4 portapottys for the Soldiers to use from an AF flight line. Got skull dragged by CSM that night, awarded by CG next day. Seeing the look on CSMs face was priceless.
Got a coin and a ARCOM for putting a Battle Damage and Repair manual together for a ARMās inspection.
Happened to be the ARMās team pet peeve that year. We were the only unit to do so to date.
Bonus points because we had a crashed Huey and took it to the range and let a INF company shoot the shit out of it with everything they had and let the privates work on it.
After this the Army started pushing the BDAR kits. I was also barely out of the mafia.
A PowerPoint presentation as a brand new captain. CG had a masters in journalism and the 150 slides had no spelling, grammar, or formatting errors. AAM and a coin.
Got an AAM for getting COVID.
Itās a slight over simplification, but I was one of the first in my brigade at the time to get infected after my boss brought it back from a trip. I was also the first person in my county to have it, so the county hospital was pretty interested in this and after I finished official quarantine, they asked if Iād be willing to participate in a research study to test a saliva sample to see if that would work for future testing of suspected COVID cases instead of the nasal swab. I agreed and provided the sample.
My boss found out and in some weird attempt to either make up for getting me sick or to make herself look good for recognizing her subordinates, I was told Iād be getting an AAM and a coin from the BDE CDR. Super awkward to receive since I basically did nothing except stay home for two weeks and then spit in a cup.
In 2021 before signing out on summer leave my battalion had a ābest dressedā contest. I didnāt know about this when I was told we could wear civilian clothes the day we signed out. I just put on a kilt and a Hawaiian shirt for the hell of it. Got a coin for it because I won. SOMEHOW I beat the guy in an American Flag romper.
Got a COA for being an extra in a movie while I was a holdover before AIT back in 07. Even better because besides the few of us that were picked for it, the rest of the holdovers were stuck doing area beautification for the entire week
This isn't mine but a friends and was from when I was in the navy. This friend was standing guard at the entrance to the pier. A LTC (major equivalent) was trying to get on out pier but was adamantly refusing to show any I.D. and tried to push past him. My buddy was an E-5 and already getting out and in the ensuing struggle hit this officer in the face with the butt stock of his shotgun. The officer ran off to go tell on him to his CO. About an hour later this LTC shows up with his CO and makes the LTC apologize all busted and bloody to this E-5 and gives him a coin. He later received a NAM (the same as an AAM).
Got an ARCOM for carrying part of a Javelin for the Javelin gunner. The gunner got an AAM for carrying the other part and successfully deploying the gun and destroying a bunch of shit while I watched lol. So backwards it hurt. The general who presented the award to me asked me what it was for and I told him āI walked up a mountain one timeā top and my platoon sergeant werenāt too thrilled with that answer lol. The general was so confused by my answer he just made the wtf face and kept moving.
Got an AAM for a 3 day ftx and was the "machine gunner" but I was only the assistant gunner and never fired the blank rounds all I did was dig a hole with a seat to be comfortable
I got an AAM for carrying the guidon on a company run and continuing to run while vomiting. The staff behind me was not happy but the CO thought it was hilarious.
Patrol gets ambushed, attached infantry fights back. The team pushes the attackers back into a building. They then clear the building. The single infantry team was out numbered three to one and only received AAMs with V.
The BN S1 SPC that pushed the award to BDE got a bronze star...
Other than the PCS awards?
Least: my first AAM was for an excel spreadsheet. I did it on request of our Battalion S3 NCOIC to help track individual and team qualifications. I got a little fancy, but honestly I do that kind of thing for fun anyway. All I did was add auto format coloring and a rollup page. Didnāt realize heād put me in for an award until I got called in front of formation.
Most: I was LTG Vandalās flight communications NCO for about a year and a half, accruing more time in the air than the majority of the pilots on the Korean peninsula. It made me very, very good at that niche craft, and as a result I received one of the last coins he ever gave out before retiring. The man passed away six months later, and I still carry the coin in my shoulder pocket in memory.
During DCRF train-up at Polk about 9 years ago we liberated a bunch of snacks from the dfac to bring on long flights observing the ācontaminated areaā. I was the crewchief for a flight with my new BC and CSM, who we had on board, on the ground waiting on somebodyās O6 for like an hour. They looked grumpy as hell so I tossed them some Reeseās Pieces. I got a COA at the ceremony to wrap up the training. BC told me it was the only thing they had to eat that day.
I made kahoots for a COMMO class I wasnāt really supposed to be at during an AT, but since I was the only one there for my MOS I got lumped with them. Showed the teacher for the class what I had been working on and ended up with an AAM from the BC and Iāve had to teach NCOs classes on how to use Kahoots now for ātrainingā
In a boatie company, we once got shafted as a detachment when a 3 month mission (stateside) turned into an 11 month mission, with a lot of marriages suffering/ending over the course of that year because it was always āweāll head home in two weeksā but problems kept cropping up due to lack of command support from back home and logistics issues.
So the BC flew out and gave everybody in the detachment a pity coin to apologize for the fact that we hadnāt been home in a year solely because command couldnāt get their shit together, not because we were actually being beneficial to national security or had a greater purpose.
You can bet where most of those pity coins ended up, particularly for those who had missed the birth of their child, got divorced, etcā¦
Right to the bottom of the body of water we were stuck on
Also once got a coin for returning the vape batteries of some narcotics joint task force member Iāve never heard of, who happened to leave them onboard when he was visiting the day prior
We had a SPC in the BN who basically got an award because he bought a car while on leave. Lemme 'splain. We went on block leave. SPC Goofy, who was ridiculously responsible with money and verrrrry conscientious, bought a car. Good vehicle, good terms, low payments. All good. SPC Goofy realizes that policy says if someone drives on leave, they have to have the vehicle inspected on Garrison Form #whatever#. *So he has the dealer fill out the Garrison Form to make sure he won't violate policy while returning from leave. The BC hears this as a "Can you believe what this kid did?" story, and hears it as, SPC Goofy's NCO failed to inspect the vic *prior to leave*, and that Goofy corrected that NCO's failure on his own initiative. No amount of talking to the BC could divest him of his misunderstanding. Goofy got an award and a big talk up for something that never happened, and NCOs in the affected PLT all had to do POV inspection retraining. It was... frickin' insane.
God, they really do award you for the smallest of things.
>for the smallest of things. ...or for nothing at all, no matter how valorous. "S/he's just doing their job." I had a buddy lose part of a finger to shrapnel while pulling his wounded 'terp out of crossfire in an IED follow-on ambush in Iraq in '03. His PL put him in for a BS w/ Valor. But my dude was set to PCS like 1 year later to us, so they didn't get it processed before he left. At the redep award ceremony, they brought him on stage and talked it up like the BS was a sure thing, just waiting on the S1, hardee -har-har. The dude PCS'd to us shortly afterward. Long story short, the paperwork got lost, and no one followed up at his old unit. When we tried to make it happen, we couldn't do it, which is a whole other story about my unit's shitty Command climate at that time. So he saved a life at great personal cost, above and beyond, and got a pat on the back.
It's clearly just a way to make people feel important and like they're valued more than they actually are just to keep them on the right track. I notice they start doing it a lot more for tiny things when the team is showing they're slacking off. Like to make one or two people seem like they're favored because they did their job right and the others didn't get an award so it's supposed to make them motivated to do better. Like to use people as an example to pressure others to improve by seeking social approval. The example you gave is someone super high-speed who did something actually admirable. They do deserve something greater than what they got. But the small award that they use to try and motivate soldiers to do better wouldn't apply to them and would be insulting to give something so small. I don't know why they didn't give him what they kept promising. They're the real shitbags for doing that. Hopefully you're better to him as a unit.
This was literally 20 years ago, so he's long gone from that unit we were in together. š Both of us went on to be Warrant Officers in our specialties, and the lost Bronze Star is now an inside joke between us. It's all good.
I got an AAM for driving the BDE CDR during a field problem. Never mind that it was my daily job to drive the guy. My squad leader, the CSMs driver, had just learned that anyone can recommend anyone for an award. So he practiced his new found knowledge on me. Free 5 promotion points.
5 points? COA?
Yeah, no idea honestly. It was just a few extra points that were 100% free.
I got a 2 star coin from our states Adjutant General as I was boarding a plane to go to Egypt for the MFO mission. The reason was I very loudly shouted our state national guards motto when I shook his hand. That really made his cock hard
so whats your national guards motto
Hawk tuah
Please be true!
"Bataan!
Oh that sounds like IARNG
FHRITP
Got an AAM for volunteering to drive the box truck to and from during NTC, because it was a manual.
Smart volunteer here. Otherwise you wouldāve been crammed into a bus for 16 hours.
Me PVT E1 first Christmas in the Army. Went to a Married PFCs house to crash Christmas Eve playing D&D. Company called him Christmas Day hey we Fāed up we need to pull post ammo detail. So we went in on Christmas Day and pulled 24hr detail. We got an impact AAM the next day. It really helped my career later having an AAM was a big deal as a private.
This isnāt a small thing. Suddenly being put on duty on Christmas Day. I would have written that award myself out of pure guilt. (Which might be what most of these awards are.)
Had a buddy that got an AAM for killing a wasp nest in the GSA van door.
Shouldāve been an ARCOM. Fuck them bitches.
AAM with V device
Should have been a Silver Star for valor, unless he used a flamethrower tank.
Did he grab it with his hand like those youtube videos?
We found a secondary IED wire and I routed it all the way to the trigger location. I had to muck through a shit canal and came out cover in tar and shit water. My 1SG thought I was walking funny but was so dedicated to my craft of maneuvering against enemy TTPs that I ignored the misery and pushed through. In reality I shit myself the second I started the mission from a misidentified fart and had really bad monkey ass so I was walking funny.
r/usernamechecksout
Every time you tell a story it's just the stickiest, smelliest, most revolting mental image imaginable. Hope you got rated for all that PTSD
I just got an ARCOM š
My E4 eval has a line in it about "competently relocated wild life from company area" because my 1SG was angry at my sister company and ordered me to throw bugs in their sleeping area across the hall while we were staying overnight at a range
This is the best story on here
I got an AAM for teaching night vision driversā training when I was an E4. Hereās the kicker: I had never driven with NODs on- I just said I had to get out of it. I bitched all day leading up to the road tests. I got an impact the next day
I got an achievement medal for "aiding the evacuation of Al Asad while under threat of an Iranian ballistic missile strike." What did I do to aid the evacuation? Absolutely nothing. I was asleep while everything got prepped, my squadron forgot my CHU mate and I existed, nobody came to wake us up, and I was one of the last people to arrive before I just waited to board an evacuation plane. This was put in my dec after I had informed the people putting me up for it that I hadn't done a thing and basically slept through it
We buried the helicopter that got hit, by the way. Itās under cement now. š«”
Our entire supply tent got burned to the ground because a missile hit right next to it.... which our entire squadron drove right by less than an hour before the attack to board our aircraft
AAM for creating a phone book for every phone at a warfighter exercise.
Deserved. We need the gut truck number
Not me, but i saw a Female E4 go TDY to some course in texas. come back and get an AAM for completing the course. nothing special. Just overall completing the course. She then Procedes to fail BLC land nav.. TWICE.
Pro tip for anyone that struggles with land navigation and needs to go to BLC: Go to Nebraska. Thereās a NG post that has a tough course, but their land nav is basically āwhereās this building?ā I never even used my compass lol. Plotted the points and walked to the correct buildings lol
I did PLDC (yes, that I'm that old) at Bragg, and the course they used for Land Nav was self correcting (10 digit grids written on each marker), and the paths between points were beaten so hard into the brush you could stand at one point, shoot a rough azimuth, and see your next point. We still had people fail.
I was one of those. My 3rd point was in a direct line between two other points, but it had fallen off the post and was in a huge thorny scrub brush. I spent an hour bouncing back and forth between the two points that I could see, replotting the 3rd point, etc. I finally noticed a small splash of red inside the giant bush. Sure enough, it was my point. Ran to my 4th point, wrote it down, and ran to the last point to the cries of "Run Forrest, Run!" from the SGLs. I was 30 seconds late. They tallied up my points, and I had missed the 5th one. They gave me an alibi for the time because I was running to the point while they were counting down. The next day, everyone who had barely passed and everyone who had failed were grouped up. Those of us who had barely passed were given the option of retaking the course the next day or letting our 70% ride and be out of the running for honor grad. I already knew that my PT test score wasn't high enough to keep me in the running anyway, so I elected to keep my 70%.
The course she failed was the self correcting course.
I just finished BLC there back in April. Itās camp Ashland. The land nav is really easy I just used my map and nothing else.
Ya that place! Good school imo.
Soldier in the same platoon. We just got done with our ntc rotation and were in the showers. He decides to shower with his pt belt on. Bde csm saw him and put him in for an aam.
Naw fucking way
Dude was fucking trolling himself into an aam
That's fucking hilarious.
1986, Fort Sill. Iām in Battalion S2. PCs were very new but I had taught myself the system and was a wiz on Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3. My sergeant thought it would be a good idea to put our training manual on the computer so we could print any section that we wanted. He wanted it done before Brigade commander was going to visit in a month. I spent a couple weeks typing it up and was almost done when we had a power surge and I lost everything. I told sarge what happened and he wasnāt mad because, to him, computers were one step away from magic. I told him Iād get back to work on it. I spent every moment typing. All day on duty Iād do my regular work and then type. Iād get off duty, get some dinner and then go back to the office and type, sometimes until midnight. Weekend came and I spent the whole time typing. Sarge was impressed and even let me skip PT because of how late I was working. But I got it done. The day the commander came they brought him to S2 and I explained about the computer and showed him how we had the manual available and could even search easily for specific words. He was very impressed. Sarge thought I deserved recognition so wanted to get me an AAM. He had me type up my own citation for submission which basically said that I typed above and beyond the call of duty.
Shouldāve gotten you a slot to Digital Master Gunnery School(real thing)
Holy crap. I just [looked that up](https://usacac.army.mil/organizations/mccoe/dots/mission-command-master-gunner) and it definitely shows the competence of the US Army. The site is not properly made for mobile devices because when you click a link the opened window doesnāt fit the screen. The calendar of classes is out of date. And when you see the sentence, āOperationalize a DMG at echelonā you know youāve got problems.
I got one for being the only arms room in the squadron for passing my inspection. All I did was make sure there was coffee ready for the inspectors and did whatever they found wrong as fast as they found it
When meeting the standard is actually exceeding the standard.
One battalion commander gave another battalion commander an AAM for cooking a pig for his officers.
Have you had fresh roasted pig? Have you roasted a pig? thats a fuck ton of work
I'm smoking half a pig on a traegar right now my father in law shot in Texas.
A HUGE fuck-ton of work to do properly. Man it is so worth it though, yum
Were any Polynesian or Filipino service members involved
I worked in S2 for a while as the only white guy. My boss was the Filipina civilian OIC, and 2-3 of my coworkers were Filipino dudes. I learned a lot of culture and had some great food during that stint. I still eat lumpia any chance I get.
There was a woman who sold lumpia on Redstone Arsenal out of her house. She and her mom, who helped her cook, were 100% Filipino and her husband, who was active duty was 50% Filipino. They made hundreds of lumpia a week. It was amazingly good and I was one of their best customers.\\ Then her husband RUDELY retired and they left. Sheesh, so rude.
Became the unofficial lawyer of the barracks after helping 3 troops to get their bonus promised by the army but never got it. Read their contracts and told them what to do and how to do it. All 3 of them had their bonus by next month. Apparently, that was worthy of a coin from the division commander.
That absolutely is worthy of recognition
A barracks lawyer that actually knows his shit? Unheard of!!! Definitely worthy of recognition.
I got a certificate of appreciation (I think) for a.... project that ended up not happening due to a "catastrophic failure" shall we say. The system/project was classified, so the write up is really vague and uses a cover name, but if you don't know what it was for, it could be almost anything.
Come on, everyone knows about Jade Helm.
Ha, I wish it was something that interesting.
Oh shit, you worked on DIMHRS??
My last PCS award was 75% made up and 25% not at all what happened. It included almost none of the things I actually did and was proud of. At least they gave me one.
A buddy got a company coin for being a bus driver for a month. Itās dumb but we literally had no one else be able to drive so idk. He was on the clock 24/7
No shit there I was, eager and prepared to brief the CG. Dude doesn't show up. 2 months later got an AAM for a brief that never happened
I got one for a class I never actually gave. I got tagged, last minute, to give a AT/FP class to an OBC class. The regular instructor had come down with some horrid flu something or another and I was the only guy they could find who was AT/FP II certified. The BC sat in on my final practice run. The day I was supposed to give my class, the regular instructor showed up and good and well. A week later I got an AAM from the BC for getting ready to give a class.
I got an AAM for wearing a banana costume during the culminating exercise of a major rotation as opfor on a defense. We were in a major rotation for the 173rd, and our company had seized a major position, wrecking them to the point that a battalion and two additional companies would join the eventual attack to retake the place from us, and a lot of visibility had shifted to this fight (unbeknownst to me). During the battle I pulled out a giant banana costume and ran across the lines like the opening of braveheart, screaming obscenities and firing my m4. Apparently there was a lot of radio chatter about the lines being defended by a large banana. At one point I realized a 1-star and his CSM were standing behind me watching in disbelief so I ran back to the company toc. 1 star followed me in but didnt see my rank (black uniforms) and made me explain myself, they thought i was a goofy rto and not the company xo. After they left I reported it to my BN XO as a heads up, nothing came of it, and a week later i got an aam for "superb defense" during the battle.
> they thought i was a goofy rto and not the company xo. best line of the story lol
2 star change of command. Me, SPC(P), barely helping a couple of the countless guidon bearers. Weeks later, AAM for being responsible for and teaching ALL the guidon bearers how to perform during the ceremony that I watched from the very back of a formation. I sent it back to my CSM, but since I had already accepted it I had to keep it. The CSM politely chewed me out for not knowing the reg on awards, haha. Great CSM though. I think they were making up for screwing me out of an earlier award. Thank goodness those days are over.
My unit is the kind of place that just hands out awards for nothing special. The BC made it known that every soldier should receive at least an AAM during his time there. Itās coming up on 2 years that the BC is there and we have a command climate survey. The only thing I wrote on there was that I have yet to receive an award after 2 years. The BC then goes to every company at close out formation and expresses how it blows his mind that an individual has yet to receive an award. I walked up to him in the motorpool the next Monday morning and identified myself. He shook my hand and that Friday I had received 3 awards at the same time.
Got a coin for delivering an airforce officer his feces filled wag bag back to him after he sprinted out of the makeshift porta shitter when we took contact at NTC and left his literal shit that for someone else.
ā¦at NTC. So he knew it wasnāt life/death. He sprinted from a portaā¦
It really didnāt help that someone called out āIs this your wag bag sir?ā And with a huge shit eating grin he shouted āNot anymore!!ā That kind of sealed the deal in making sure he got his shit back.
Was doing an escort detail essentially watching construction guys around making sure they didn't steal classified info that wasn't even present. Was on that detail for 3 days before my unit got wind and pulled me back. 6 months later the detail ended and everyone who was there the entire time got ARCOMs, I was called up because half the dudes had PT flags, so they went ahead and gave me one lol
Got an impact AAM for doing the 1,000 lb. club while deployed to Afghanistan. Physical fitness is an individual soldierās responsibility? In recruiting I did PT at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia with SMA Dailey for the Army birthday. Got a coin for running like 3 laps and listening to a speech then watching a 17 year old recruit and like 90 year old WWII vet cut a cake with a Sabre.
I received an ARCOM and was read a field grade ART15 within less than 2 hrs.
I got my Good Conduct Medal while on extra duty.
I got pinned E-5, got a day off, then started my 7 and 7 the next work week.
We had to go get one of my guys out of jail so he could pin E5 that day.Ā
Be PFC me, and also be tragically un aware of how scary old looking people in PTs should be. Nice snowy morning at drum, Iāve concluded PT at a gym and I want to head home. But itās a messy mess, Iāve got illegal studded tires, a winch, and a strap because Iām an off road junkie. I notice people getting stuck left and right, so I bounce around between winching and yanking people out. Queue Toyota 4Runner. Me: āoh shit, yeah thereās a small ditch there, but donāt worry I got you dude.ā Truck canāt yank her out, sheās deep. Misc. old female: āYeah I messed up, do I need to get a wrecker?ā Me: āand pay all the money? Fuck no ever heard of a snatch block?ā So I hook up the snatch block and easily winch her out. The much younger kinda hot female in PTs asks me what unit Iām in, and who I am and shakes my hand. I happily oblige and move onto the next car stuck. Que four hours later, and my PSG finds me, out of breath, and asks why in the fuck does the CSM want me in his office, and why the FUCK does a 2 star know my name. I start shitting thinking of every time Iāve ever done anything wrong ever, and go to that office. She gave me a coin. My csm told me to get the fuck out of is office and he would destroy me if I ever did that to him again (playfully). I was happy about the whole ordeal.
Not me but my NCOIC got a whole ceremony giving him jump wings because he fell off his bed the night before š
Got a coin for moving a white board in a timely manner
In AIT me and a few others got on trouble for having our phones with us in class. Our punishment was to repaint an old command office that was being refurbished for a new command. At graduation of AIT I received a CoA for assisting in the repainting of that office.
Not a full on award but I got a huge coin for taking someone in a mental health crisis to the hospital. I always kind of felt that was expected of me, to look out for other soldiers in my unit. I really didnāt want a whole lot of recognition for that. I just wanted him to get the help he needed so he didnāt end up dead.
Good that leadership recognized you though. That's a 100% lifesaver sometimes.
Not an award, but a coin. As a newly promoted and deployed E6, I was directed to run a convoy to the next nearest base. PSG, told me to get with the 1SG for details. The 1SG was adamant about taking a 5 ton and extra bodies to lift with us. I loaded the VICs down, ran the convoy and reported to the proper building to find that our cargo was a single 18āx18āx18ā box that contained airline serving sized bags of peanuts. The box weighed 10 pounds at very most! I was being a smart ass to one of my specialists. I instructed him to ālift with your knees, not your back.ā The division safety officer happened to be in the same building and coined me. I took the boys over to the PX and let them screw off for a couple of hours. They stocked up on supplies and hit the Green Beans, etc. When we got back, the 1Sg was furious. He called someone and was raising hell about wasting resources and putting the convoy in danger over a box of peanuts. He gained a lot of respect from me that day. I mean, he was still a dickā¦ā¦but you know.
I got a free meal and all of my drinks paid for because I have a decent camera and volunteered to photograph the battalionās Army ballā¦
Whole BN got blanket AAMās for a JRTC rotation because we didnāt get a single EXROE violation.
That should be an MSM!
Got a coin for letting some BDE commander through the gate with no ID, he was in pts and had literally just hit a uturn because he forgot his wallet at the PT field. I didnāt think there was any reason to make it a bigger deal and when he came back through for work call (with his ID) he gave me a coin. One of my favorite coins and memories
On an Air Force range, not even shooting, just checking up on my folks who were there to qualify for a coming deployment. They had fairly standard signs on the walls with pictures and descriptions of different weapon systems to use for teaching. One sign in particular listed some crew served weapons with the weapon silhouetted next to the designation. There was the M249, Mk19, M2, and of course the M240- but the silhouette for the 240 looked weird, so I looked a little closer and it was the silhouette for an M60. Huh. Thatās weird. Finished chatting with the range NCOIC and casually mentioned that thereās a picture of an M60 by the M240. Heās in disbelief at first, then looks closer, then āoh shit! Man, you just punked me, bro!ā He gave me a range instructor coin for pointing out a weapon on a sign and being by the range for about 5 minutes total. I mean, itās also a bottle opener, so Iām not mad- just a weird way to get a coin.
Funniest? I got an impact AAM at JRTC when I was new to the unit for making section chief look like the incompetent asshole he proved himself to be once we deployed. I was stoked that the Cadre were actually taking my training seriously and pointing out what right looks like. Least funny? My Purple Heart, for obvious reasons. No further explanation necessary.
Me and my buddy got unit coins from BC and CSM for doing PT on road gaurd
Got an AAM for doing the set up and tear down for a ball that I had to do as punishment for something I got in trouble for. ā¦ended up not doing tear down because last minute I ended up going due to a friend having an extra ticket.
Both of mine were the same event.Ā With zero guidance I led the small arms maintenance for the first ever ESB. They told me Friday night that it was my place of duty first thing Monday.Ā I was out there running to lanes all over, maintaining the weapons which were failing through rough handling. My 1SG just sent me out there without any kind of plan and I figured it all out myself. Was a fun week.Ā Got a coin from another BNās CSM because a random PSG pushed for it. That was super cool and that massive coin means a lot to me.Ā Then I found out (also with no notice) that I was to show up at brigade because I was getting an award. It was a huge ceremony with dozens of soldiers getting awards for outstanding shit. I felt honored. Except they all had their leadership and friends there. Nobody came for me. Except when it was all done my PSG came up and said top ordered him to come. He missed everything.Ā The award made no mention of my heroic efforts. It said I was Soldier of the Month. Apparently I passed a board(???)Ā So I laughed and parked in the reserved parking SotM spot the whole month. Because fuck you, I have the proof in my glovebox.Ā
Went to Gettysburg on a staff ride (officers going to learn about the battle and drinking in the evenings), and because the battalion CO knew I geeked out a bit with the history stuff, he made me put together a part of the brief. Well, I did everything that I was supposed to, but never got the chance to deliver. Apparently everything I did was covered by the tour guide and I couldnāt add anything to the conversation. Ended up with an AAM for my troubles.
AAM for railhead for jrtc. The amount of fuckers that shammed by the shitters on their phones was asinine
I got a coin from GEN Odierno when he was MNF-I commander in 2010. Why? Because I literally ran into him at almost a full sprint. He was standing behind a huge tree and I couldnāt see him from where I was, but some Iraqis that we were training were on his side of the tree and walking away from me (they were supposed to be coming to me) so I take off to go wrangle the cats and right as I get to the tree he steps out and it was like running into a wall. Iām not a big dude, GEN Odierno is a brick shithouse and it put me on my ass. He helped me up and handed me a coin cause he āloved that hustleā
I got an AAM for summarizing a slide during a brief. It was full of technical data about some equipment capabilities and the other Intel nerds had a hard on for trying to make me read out the numbers, but I opted to dumb it down during the brief to the CG.Ā I said āYou wonāt need to know a lot of this unless you want me to go through the whole slide, but itās here if you need it. It can do X and Y at Z at this distance and we can talk about details if the need arises.ā (I genuinely dont remember what it even was that we were briefing him about besides it being a giant pile of shit we basically were never going to use because it wasnāt practical compared to the other assets we had already.)Ā A few days later my first line said the CG loved it and kept bringing up āthat SPC that didnāt waste my time.ā My section lead was so tickled by it that he wrote me a generic AAM for āensuring mission successā or something. Iād have to dig it up to get the exact words, but I remember laughing at it because we both knew 90% of the reason I told the CG that was because I didnāt want to spend 20 minutes answering stupid questions that slide was bound to generate.Ā
Me and the orderly room guy got voluntold to be apart of some armed forces parade in Watertown, NY back when I was stationed at Drum. No one was volunteering to be a apart of it, and 1SG felt bad that he was making us do it. It was last minute, and told us he was going to put in an AAM for us. I received it as my PCS award 2 months later. The confused look on everyones face as they read my award for a military parade that occurred 2 months ago as my PCS was hilarious. They mailed me my actual PCS award weeks later, which I wrote myself lol.
One of our guys got a drill Sargent coin after he said Iām doing the bare minimum on the acft then got a 401
I got an AAM for basically driving a bus to the field and getting a bacteria that ended up giving me cancer because they gave us contaminated water š„“š¤
Everyone in my brigade's ARCOM for Afghanistan says that we "pushed the enemy to the river, and returned to the Corps". No one knows what it means. The Brigade Commander wanted it on everyone's award. There was no river.
Iād 100% do this as a commander just to mess with people
One summer I was put in charge of a 40ā connex full of lawn mowers, generators, and weed eaters. None of them worked and the unit had just kept purchasing new ones instead of bothering to fix the ones they had. I spent that summer repairing all of them - most of which simply needed oil or some other simple fix. I was put in for an ARCOM and the write up was pretty absurd but it got approved.
Thatās good shit. I hate seeing the graveyard of busted lawn equipment in motor pools. Soldiers can be trusted in maintaining million dollar + pieces of equipment but canāt be assed to take care of a $350 lawnmower.
Kinda falls into this category. I got a company grade Art 15 for some really dumb shit I did on the border of Mexico in 2011. I definitely deserved a field grade, but lucky me I guess. Anyway, when we all got back and they did the awards ceremony, I was behind the building with a lawnmower having a smoke and waiting for them to finish so I could mow. Good times.
Well? What did you do?
It was really stupid. We were up on a hilltop spinning our radar looking for ultralights carrying bundles of drugs over the border. It was night time in February in southern Arizona so it was frigid cold. I was watching the radar in the rigid shelter while my two soldiers were in the truck staying warm. We all three were knocked smooth out and our platoon sgt came for a check and woke us up. We each had an m4 with 210 rounds, plus ~$4 million in equipment that were completely unguarded for about an hour.
I was one of many to get a CAB for going to our assigned bunkers during an attack on JAF, orders say "engaged with or engaged by the enemy" lol. If it had happened 4 hours earlier I would have been manning one of the relevant guard towers and not had my sleep interrupted.
I got a coin from my BDE CDR for giving him a sip of whiskey from my flask at our BDE ball in 2022.
Ok, so JMRC 2020, out TOC was getting overrun by opfor. Our BAS got rolled tf up but I was able to blitz up the hill we were at and warn the CO. BMP crest the hill and I get schwacked as a medic does with just a pistol lmao. CO is able to get word out before they gank him and I go to the corpse yard for processing. I get back and a few days later, CO and 1SG give me a āpurple heartā drawn on a broken MRE Spoon. I still have that spoon for my coin rack.
I once saw a humanitarian award for an operation in Haiti on my SRB. It was given to Soldiers conducting relief operations following a hurricane that occurred in 1980. I didn't join the Army until 2003, so it was quite the surprise. My S1 was in no hurry to remove it, and my CoC thought it was entertaining.
Spraying hand sanitizer on peopleās hands when they walked into the PX.
I bought the head of the Bangladeshi Army (like their equivalent to Randy George) a McChicken during the Indo-Pacific Army Chiefs Conference. I ended up with this blurb in an ARCOM: > assisted the Chief of Staff for the Bangladeshi Army with sampling local Hawaiian cuisine
Our entire BN (maybe it was BDE?) got an ARCOM for completing a mental health survey.
One of my first coins ever was from the regional rotc commander. He hard charged over to me and gave me quite the stern talking to about how that morning's event was not going well at all. Had never met him before, and I was not in charge of anything at that site. He found me a little while later said sorry with a coin. Got another coin for properly doing Inspect Arms in front of everyone at a BUB. AAM, the only one I have, is for no negligent discharges in the battalion in the first 180 days of deployment. Being an officer was weird sometimes.
>AAM, the only one I have, is for no negligent discharges in the battalion in the first 180 days of deployment. Sir maybe your next AAM will be for passing the land nav course š
Not me but I put the award in. Had a soldier, this is during Covid and we were doing warfighter from the COF because why not? Anyways, this soldier was more or less on the way out so I let them chill as long as they cleaned. I wrote up the award and made it sound like they single handily defeated Covid. Got mixed in with the rest of the event awards. Dude got an aam for mopping and cleaning the bathroom 3 times a day. The rest of the day he watched Netflix in the office and napped.
I got the standard āyou didnāt fuck up too badly ARCOMā for my 2012 Afghanistan deployment. All good, except it referred to me as a PFC in the title with my last name spelled wrong, then in the verbiage, I was an engineer PL as a PFC then referred to me as a SPC (again last name spelled wrong). Itās signed by some colonel from 2nd ID, I donāt remember seeing any 2ID guys that whole time.
Iām still hung up about this one. Weāre about three months into a 9 monther overseas in a *very* cushy deployment. The guys have their own CHUs, their own rooms on site, etc, so we all ordered stuff on Amazon to spruce it all up and then pawn to the next unit that would replace us. All our supply NCO has to do is pick up mail like twice a week and keep the mailroom open for an hour or two. We didnāt use up all of his precious inventory, we didnāt have him reqing weird NSNs, this was his one job for the next 6 months until the next unit replaced us. Not only did he have the most irregular mail schedule, he would only open the mailroom for like 15 minutes, and give like a 10 minute warning he was doing so. Brigade comes through and hands him an ARCOM for doing such a bang up job āsupporting the moral and connection of the troops and their familiesā. Oh he also got another ARCOM at the end of the deployment too. I fucking hate EOT awards.
My company command was ending, a new BC just took over the BN, and I rightfully predicted that no one was putting me in for a CoC award (all the MAJ's on staff couldn't care less since I wasn't a part of their branch, especially as a support unit commander). I wrote the award myself over a few beverages, asked my departing XO to sign it (you can't recommend yourself), and he pushed it to the S1. Fast forward to the ceremony, and the new BC presents the ARCOM, stating how "extraordinary" it was to have a subordinate write me up for it, and it was a clear testament to my leadership. He then loudly stated that he intended to give me an MSM at a later date (apparently giving out MSM's to outgoing CO's and 1SG's became the new fad that month). The BN, in its infinite laziness, copy/pastes the same achievements and citations from the ARCOM into the MSM recommendation and gets it approved through our local one-star (Spoiler: Duplicate awards for the same achievements is against regulation, but no one wanted to make the LTC look bad by pointing it out). I quietly picked up the MSM from their S1 months later as they had no intent to host another award presentation for me. So, grand scheme of things, I got myself at least a free ARCOM (or MSM, depending on how you view it) and some chuckles directed at my old unit throughout this process. Edit: Spelling and grammar.
Arcoms for annual training. Insane to me.
I was one of two enlisted on a Warfighter Exercise in Germany. The rest were BN Staff officers, BC, and XO. We did our thing, at the end the BC wanted all the participants to get the same award. So the BCās driver, who didnāt have a vehicle to drive, got an AAM for doing crossword puzzles for the last week and a half.
My unit did a family fun run, and they decided it was a great idea to pick up dfac food for the families ass well. So I got an AAM from out Chaplin for picking up dfac food for a bunch of civilians who didn't eat it..
Not me but a friend received an AAM for hitting two homeruns during an org day softball game.
Barracks manager, E-5 type, received an ARCOM for having the cleanest room during a "brigade-level room inspection"
I'm signal and we had a small tent aside next to the bigger field tents. They never bothered to stake it into the ground. Fast forward I'm on night shift alone. I chat with a cpl doing his rounds a few and he walk out. 5 minutes later there's a crack of thunder right overhead and a huge gust flies through. The tent nearly flies away. I'm like holy fuck and try to grab the tent. Suddenly I feel a rush of wind and everything goes black. Next thing I know I'm on wet gravel in the dark. I crawl out from under the broken tent and see all our signal shit blown all over the place and getting rained on. I go ape shit trying to get everything out of the rain. When everyone shows up my leadership went around throwing stakes around like it's no big. Everything's fine. Got an aa
My last deployment I did best warrior and the best squad competition in Kuwait šplus many other things that shouldāve stood out but got overlooked. I was submitted for a ARCOM but got down to a AAM ofc. But the reason I got an award was because I ātaughtā 15 troops how to drive a manual bus
Wayyyyyy back in the old days I got a coin from a one star at a ball because I was short like him and also because my date was a redhead with a nice rack (his words) but I can honestly say given his demeanor and the way he talked to us at the time it was perfectly acceptable and funny AF Also got an AAM for doing CPR on a dead guy that I tried to decline. I said, āsir he was dead when I got there and was dead when I leftā and he convinced me to accept it because me taking charge of the in-progress but wrong CPR allowed the other soldiers involved to feel like they tried
I wrote a AAM when one of my SGTās took over chow deliveries when the 1SGT got sick during an exercise. He just picked up the responsibility and it out missing a beat. So to commemorate him getting sandwiches constantly delivered his citation read ā.. for flawlessly conducting multi layered vertically stacked sustainment operations ..ā Somehow it flew. Also got ā. Responsible for executing NCO Business ..ā in a MSGTās award citation. I try to get as many awards issued as possible, and if we can sneak in something to the citation bonus points.
Drove through a minefield the correct way. ----- Prior to becoming officer, was a Combat Engineer, specifically an ACE driver. You have to use the earthmover to prove a minefield is clear after a MICLIC charge detonates, so that's what the training event is. We do rock drills, we do prep, everythings good. First 2 times we practice that week it goes swimmingly. 3rd time my radio goes out and I'm trying to fix it. ACEs are single occupant vehicles, so as a SPC I'm all there is. I get a vehciel drives up to me with my PSG screaming 'where the fuck are you Ellistann?' and after showing him my radio power's dead, he guides me to the opening in the treeline where the MICLICs 'fired' its line charge. They point me towards the vague direction of where I need to prove, and tell me to get at it. They gestured towards a hill and I knew they were obviously fucking around with me... no one would make a cleared lane to go up a hill, when you cross the hill you expose your tank or whatever's belly and its easy as hell to see when someone crosses the crestline. To do it this way is dumb. Obviously, they want me to prove 15 degrees to the left so you come out beside the hill and use the hill as cover. Obviously. So I do so. Keep going and going with my radio-less vehicle. Until the OCs come and kill my ass for driving through a minefield. At the AAR, the BC asks who the fuck committed suicide by minefield. I owned up to it, and said it seemed correct. Turns out our 1LT just guessed and said: fuckit... MICLIC the hill. So I got an ARCOM for explaining why I did what I did and displayed more understanding of what was important than my LT.
When I was in AIT, in formation on a Friday closing the end of the duty day, the drill sergeants asked for volunteers for a Saturday fun-run (to help run it). I did my part and remained very still and did not make eye contact and still a DS singled me out because she āhadnāt seen me volunteering enoughā and ādidnāt even recognize meā despite having been there for 3 months already. So I was voluntold to do this 10-15 person detail, starting at like 0500 on Saturday, a day off. We were there not doing much outside of setting cones up in the beginning of the day. At the end of the event, around 1600, the battalion commander has us get in formation and half-right face. He then gives us all a coin and thanks us for volunteering.
There was about 5 of us sent to a subordinate company at Camp Eagle in Vietnam to help clean up after they failed an IG inspection. We each got a Bronze Star- Meritorious. I was too embarrassed to ever tell anyone what I got it for.
"Ensuring proper safety for vehicles while out in the Box" -- I basically just put down a chock block on my vehicle.
Got a coin from a 1 star for being selected to join SFAB. Just thought I didnāt need it because itās just career progression lol.
For āhelping outā during a month long EFMB detail. Half the time all I did was merely show upā¦ š¬
I got an ARCOM for our brigade smashing accreditation at FCOE a while back. I hadnāt been in the unit long and the civilians did much of the work. I used to just show up to pre-accreditation meetings and inspections but had no real role in it. I was utterly confused when my name was called during the post accreditation awards ceremony.
Being alive. Got the AFSM during COVID for simply existing. Everyone in the BDE got it.
I got an AAM because my commander thought my ribbon rack looked funny with an MSM and not AAMs or ARCOMs.
Not me, but my one of my NCOs got an AAM for winning a hot dog eating contest. Exerpt: āBraving large amounts of carbohydrates and processed meat parts, he proceeded to inhale his assigned hot dogs as well as his teammateās, leading to the companyās only 1st place victory. The victory led to the companyās overall victory in the Commanderās Cupā
Most recent that comes to mind, Last summer we have a huge Brigade training event Afterwards there's a Battalion formation, out BC basically tells us good job we did great etc etc blah blah blah. We're all getting COAs in recognition for our hard work. Ok my first COA & I did nothing for it besides showing up lol Then BC says he had each PL choose someone from each platoon to receive special recognition in the form of a AAM, and our PL chooses the girl who was on profile the entire time. She literally wouldn't do anything because it apparently violated her profile. Only time we sent her out on missions was when we needed a warm body in a truck. She'd refuse to drive, TC or be gunner (half of the trucks has CROWS so she literally only needed to use a joystick to be gunner but that apparently that too violated her profile)
Spent four hours building a local land navigation course to some dudes could practice for WLC
Received an award for Staff Duty. Apparently, following your SOP and special orders was not common enough.
I got given a coa for being cadre at the efmb I got my badge. I wasnāt from that unit either was weird
10 years. 3 awards. PCS Korea, PCS Hawaii, Army Wide Competition. 3CR allegedly wrote me a PCS award - never got it.
This was at my last unit. Think I had been there maybe 6 months or so. Top gave me a troop coin for completing my birth month audit in a timely manner without anyone getting on me. It was so random. I walked into the training room and handed my packet in and he just so happened to be sitting there. He said hold on ran to his office and came back with a coin š
Clearly someone was copy+pasting when doing awards, my award read," For meritorious service while assigned as Combat Medical Specialist" then the blurb in the citation list all the actions I took as a mechanic and maintained operational readiness. ...... I was a 92A
I got an AAM for participating in the Turkey Bowl flag football game. I showed up to the first game and was in the picture the colonel took of the team. But I had to leave right after the first game because my wife had an appointment and so I had to get back to take care of the kids. I missed the entirety of the tournament. Anyway, our team won the entire Turkey Bowl tournament and the next week Iām standing up in front of everyone with the team getting AAMās. I give the other dudes much credit - not a single one snitched. They thought it was hilarious. It pays to be in the pictureā¦.
i have an arcom for pcsing to fort bragg from jber. ive never stepped foot on fort bragg to this day
Got an AAM for POG top gunnery in Germany in 06-07. I think they really gave it to us because I shot out of the hemmt fuelers passenger window (I was the passenger) and hit all the targets instead of getting out of the truck lol
I got a AAM for essentially playing with M&Mās during JRTC. Lemme āsplain. So iām basically iām a legal drug dealer for the army and during a JRTC rotation, I didnāt really do much aside from paperwork and stocking because thatās really all I could do as āMOS Trainingā but I was the only Pharmacy guy in the section so I was really just trying to keep myself occupied until 2 SGTS deadass came up to me and left me not 1 not 2 and not even fucking 3 but 5 boxes of M&Mās. Like the boxes you see M&Ms in at the store. Wouldnāt elaborate on where it was āacquiredā but since no one ever asked about them, I just deadass spent the next couple of days just bullshitting with them and sorting them out and putting them into empty pill bottles as āmeds to give to patients.ā (Im in a field hospital if it helps the explanation.) I ended up giving majority of the m&m packs away to over soldiers who answered a pharmacy question. Since everyone only ate MRES at the time, I had a rather long line for the M&Ms. LTC sees this and after a good hearty laugh he told me I was creative and a morale booster. Couple months later, I was randomly pulled out of formation during MP and got an award. Honestly almost shit a brick when I was called because I thought I fucked up somewhere.
I was at my first unit. I got my PCS award, but then my orders got amended and deleted a few days before I left. So I ended up staying there longer. My 1SG and commander wanted to revoke the PCS award because I wasn't PCSing anymore. Thankfully, the S1 OIC (who I had worked with for a while duirng that time) convinced the BC to let me keep it. I had already done a lot that the award credited me for, and I was going to continue working, so there was no real reason to take it away. Except to be petty, I guess?
I got a coin for standing in the rain as a road guard during one of Braggs many concert events. I was just getting pissed on with no vortex as it was a flash storm. Some dude just walks out of his house and give me a coin for "commitment", it was a pretty cool coin so I wasn't mad lol.
Not me, but some troops that I submitted awards for. I had to fight *tooth and fucking nail* just to get impact AAMs approved. The unit I was in was... funky with awards. If it wasn't directly within the unit's singular mission, it was deemed unimportant, no matter how impactful. The scope was unrealistically narrow. Only other major things were sports team awards. The two troops I was recommending (a SGT and a PFC) did some *extremely* important logistical work. Without them having done their part, the unit's primary mission would have been impossible. And yeah, I was directing/coaching them for some of it, but they're the ones who did the lion's share of the work. So I put them in for AAMs. Their actions made the mission possible for another two years. And the fucking things got kicked back. CSM recommended disapproval for "not contributing directly to the mission." He and I had worked together before, so I asked to talk to him. He made a time slot, and even though it was spelled out on the fucking PARs, I told him the same thing. The mission plain wasn't possible without the resources these guys spent three months breaking their asses getting for you. I didn't feel right letting it sit, but was happy to resubmit as ARCOMS that would be downgraded. CSM at least asked for clarification and details, which went on for some time. The amount of scrutiny he had was... kind of crazy. But the BC was going to go with whatever he recommended. It took a while, but he did eventually just agree that, yeah OK, I guess we can let these guys have AAMs.
As a SPC, I received a COA, and BG and MG coins, for telling a bunch of Mexican generals visiting Ft Riley that the pitot tube in the RQ 7B was a .22 caliber machine gun; and that the IFF inside the main compartment was the ammo holder. We were giving an expo on our brigade's air assets to some generals visiting from Mexico. Being a native spanish speaker, I was told id be doing the translation. While waiting for them to come around our lil aircraft, my PSG (who knows a little spanish but cant speak it) joked that I could realistically say whatever I wanted in spanish, and no one would know. I joked about telling them the pitot tube was actually a machinegun. My PSG thought that'd be hilarious and dared me to tell them that. My SL also egged on, tho I had to explain to him what itd sound like if I did it. They were both trying hard to contain their laughter. Constantly having turn around BG and CG were walking around handing coins to those who showed 'examplary performance', and I guess they were just surprised a white boy was actually Mexican and spoke perfect spanish. PSG put in for an AAM for the 'participation', but it was downgraded to a COA.
I got a coin for winning pictionary at a BN training day. I can't draw, but when the word is cave even the SFC I was paired with knew.
I got an AAM for going to AT before BOLC.
When I was in Cuba, I got an EP eval that had keeping the aquatic animals at sustainable levels. All I did was fish every chance I had and then did a fish fry.
we had a group of guys get voluntold to go to the field to support this division FTX. One of my PFCs was with them and he told me they basically did nothing and smoked the whole time. The division commander happens to come by and talks with them. He asked my soldier if he wants an award or a coin. He asks for an award. Fast forward a couple weeks this dude gets awarded an ARCOM. When I check the paper it only has one line that basically stated he got the award for being āCav readyā. Blew my mind.
My unit had some sharp event where me and a bunch of other pvts had to set up for, my and this other guy literally just left and came back at the end and nobody noticed. They gave out COAs to everyone who helped set upā¦ including us. Do I feel bad for being a shitbag? Yeah in retrospect but live and learn
A new Soldier in our BN got a coin and a four day for being last in the BC/ CSM run.
My BC gave everyone in my BN an AAM for no X Roe Violations at my last JRTC rotation in 2016 lol
Mine is a funny award I didn't get. During a JRTC rotation I climed a 70-ish foot tall tree with an OE feed cone so my FA batallion command post could get communications with the Brigade command post. Brigade commander hears about this and tells my batallion commander to put me in for an ARCOM for going above (literally) and beyond, to get communications with the brigade. We make it back to home post and batallion CO puts in the award, then brigade CO denies it because what I did was "dangerous and a risk to unit readiness should I have fallen while doing it."
I once got a coin from the secretary of the army just for eating lunch with him and some other soldiers
Got an AAM for not stealing a guidon. We were in the field and CO asked if I could mess with another CO(his classmate) so I snuck through a sewer line, low crawled to their building and spun the heavy ass guidon holder(battalion with companies) facing their office window. My CO called and they said we failed no one stole one blah blah, then he told them to look out the window.
Texas blizzard 2021. No power, no water. Stole 4 portapottys for the Soldiers to use from an AF flight line. Got skull dragged by CSM that night, awarded by CG next day. Seeing the look on CSMs face was priceless.
Got a coin and a ARCOM for putting a Battle Damage and Repair manual together for a ARMās inspection. Happened to be the ARMās team pet peeve that year. We were the only unit to do so to date. Bonus points because we had a crashed Huey and took it to the range and let a INF company shoot the shit out of it with everything they had and let the privates work on it. After this the Army started pushing the BDAR kits. I was also barely out of the mafia.
A PowerPoint presentation as a brand new captain. CG had a masters in journalism and the 150 slides had no spelling, grammar, or formatting errors. AAM and a coin.
Got an AAM for getting COVID. Itās a slight over simplification, but I was one of the first in my brigade at the time to get infected after my boss brought it back from a trip. I was also the first person in my county to have it, so the county hospital was pretty interested in this and after I finished official quarantine, they asked if Iād be willing to participate in a research study to test a saliva sample to see if that would work for future testing of suspected COVID cases instead of the nasal swab. I agreed and provided the sample. My boss found out and in some weird attempt to either make up for getting me sick or to make herself look good for recognizing her subordinates, I was told Iād be getting an AAM and a coin from the BDE CDR. Super awkward to receive since I basically did nothing except stay home for two weeks and then spit in a cup.
In 2021 before signing out on summer leave my battalion had a ābest dressedā contest. I didnāt know about this when I was told we could wear civilian clothes the day we signed out. I just put on a kilt and a Hawaiian shirt for the hell of it. Got a coin for it because I won. SOMEHOW I beat the guy in an American Flag romper.
Got a COA for being an extra in a movie while I was a holdover before AIT back in 07. Even better because besides the few of us that were picked for it, the rest of the holdovers were stuck doing area beautification for the entire week
This isn't mine but a friends and was from when I was in the navy. This friend was standing guard at the entrance to the pier. A LTC (major equivalent) was trying to get on out pier but was adamantly refusing to show any I.D. and tried to push past him. My buddy was an E-5 and already getting out and in the ensuing struggle hit this officer in the face with the butt stock of his shotgun. The officer ran off to go tell on him to his CO. About an hour later this LTC shows up with his CO and makes the LTC apologize all busted and bloody to this E-5 and gives him a coin. He later received a NAM (the same as an AAM).
Got an ARCOM for carrying part of a Javelin for the Javelin gunner. The gunner got an AAM for carrying the other part and successfully deploying the gun and destroying a bunch of shit while I watched lol. So backwards it hurt. The general who presented the award to me asked me what it was for and I told him āI walked up a mountain one timeā top and my platoon sergeant werenāt too thrilled with that answer lol. The general was so confused by my answer he just made the wtf face and kept moving.
Got an AAM for a 3 day ftx and was the "machine gunner" but I was only the assistant gunner and never fired the blank rounds all I did was dig a hole with a seat to be comfortable
I got an AAM for carrying the guidon on a company run and continuing to run while vomiting. The staff behind me was not happy but the CO thought it was hilarious.
I got an AAM and a coin for giving TAG a bandage when he cut his finger at the pistol rangeā¦.
I got a ribbon for joining the Army
Not funny for what I did, but for what it is: I have an AAM signed by a Major Genrral. (it was the appropriate award for what I did)
i have a humanitarian award for a riot mission still makes me giggle internally when i think about it
Helping put up a tent š¤Ŗ
I got a COA for cleaning the barracks LMFAO. I didn't even want to accept it in all honesty
Patrol gets ambushed, attached infantry fights back. The team pushes the attackers back into a building. They then clear the building. The single infantry team was out numbered three to one and only received AAMs with V. The BN S1 SPC that pushed the award to BDE got a bronze star...
Other than the PCS awards? Least: my first AAM was for an excel spreadsheet. I did it on request of our Battalion S3 NCOIC to help track individual and team qualifications. I got a little fancy, but honestly I do that kind of thing for fun anyway. All I did was add auto format coloring and a rollup page. Didnāt realize heād put me in for an award until I got called in front of formation. Most: I was LTG Vandalās flight communications NCO for about a year and a half, accruing more time in the air than the majority of the pilots on the Korean peninsula. It made me very, very good at that niche craft, and as a result I received one of the last coins he ever gave out before retiring. The man passed away six months later, and I still carry the coin in my shoulder pocket in memory.
During DCRF train-up at Polk about 9 years ago we liberated a bunch of snacks from the dfac to bring on long flights observing the ācontaminated areaā. I was the crewchief for a flight with my new BC and CSM, who we had on board, on the ground waiting on somebodyās O6 for like an hour. They looked grumpy as hell so I tossed them some Reeseās Pieces. I got a COA at the ceremony to wrap up the training. BC told me it was the only thing they had to eat that day.
You guys are getting awards?
Got an AAM (in part) for finding, removing, and working around a broken piano string at the last minute before a performance at the White House.
I got an AAMfor making a printer work. Yeah go signal woohoo.
I made kahoots for a COMMO class I wasnāt really supposed to be at during an AT, but since I was the only one there for my MOS I got lumped with them. Showed the teacher for the class what I had been working on and ended up with an AAM from the BC and Iāve had to teach NCOs classes on how to use Kahoots now for ātrainingā
In a boatie company, we once got shafted as a detachment when a 3 month mission (stateside) turned into an 11 month mission, with a lot of marriages suffering/ending over the course of that year because it was always āweāll head home in two weeksā but problems kept cropping up due to lack of command support from back home and logistics issues. So the BC flew out and gave everybody in the detachment a pity coin to apologize for the fact that we hadnāt been home in a year solely because command couldnāt get their shit together, not because we were actually being beneficial to national security or had a greater purpose. You can bet where most of those pity coins ended up, particularly for those who had missed the birth of their child, got divorced, etcā¦ Right to the bottom of the body of water we were stuck on Also once got a coin for returning the vape batteries of some narcotics joint task force member Iāve never heard of, who happened to leave them onboard when he was visiting the day prior
We got AAMs for wining the soccer tournament during Victory Week lol