The Military Needs To Get A Handle On Its Awards Process
Carl Forsing for Task & Purpose
If you didn’t know any better, you might think the military is a grown-up version of summer camp, where everyone gets ribbons just for showing up.
I completely agree. I remember feeling weird walking around the Air Force Academy with a National Defense Service Ribbon. It was the lone ribbon any of us had on uniforms, unless you qualified as an expert marksman in M-9/rifle training.
We had only been serving for a few months, all of that time spent at an academic institution. I wondered what the purpose of the ribbon was? To show that I was…you know…participating in National Defense? I kind of figured my uniform signified that.
Less is more.
