Do you think a higher number of medals show a more successful military career? The reason I ask is that I always feel that somebody who has a greater number of medals is usually more respected than those who have not. I am good at my job and have been lucky (or unlucky) and with the postings I have had not been on any tours other than a two year posting to NI. I am gratefull for that as I have seen my 3 kids be born and grow, but I feel guilty that I haven't been, so refuse to take advantage of offers for soldiers for free stuff etc.
What are your opinions, and what makes a successful military career?(other than not being killed).
Cheers
Robbo

A successful career is when you have done your duty the best you could and come out of it in one piece. Medals are just eye candy and I have never judged a soldier by the amount of eye candy he or she has.

DITTO

Can't really answer that as I only got the National Defense Medal (this was given in my days of service to those that enlisted, not drafted) and a Unit citation. But reminds me of a funny story from one of the ships I was on.

During one of our dress blues inspections, one of the guys in my division did 2 tours of Nam, and had quite a few ribbons, including the purple heart & Bronze star. The guy was a 3rd class petty officer. During the inspection we had a warrant officer stop by him and actually asked him "Boy, did you really earn all those ribbons," He calmly answered "Yes Sir---- Did you earn your one?"
Needless to say, this remark cracked up everyone in the division. Well, the warrant officer didn't take this behavior on our part kindly, and wrote this petty officer up for insubordination.

At his Captains Mast, after heading the charges, the "Old Man" read from this petty officers service jacket the citations and reasons for his awards. Found him not guilty, and made the warrant officer apologize to the petty officer.

Unlike the other services during Nam, that required a tour of Nam, the Navy didn't, you went where your ship was sent. I have a buddy that did three tours of Nam on the Intrepid. The closest my ship came was almost to the Panama Canal before being diverted to the eastern med for one of those Middle Eastern crises. We did that crossing in record time, left most of the task-force in our wake, and that's how I (we) got the unit citation.

I can't speak for the other branches, but in the Navy, you go where you ship goes, and you have no say about it. Every ship in our task-force was heading to Nam, suddenly it was changed to going to the Med. That cruise turned into nearly a year long deployment, and twice we got the 2 beer rations for being at sea for so long. I'm proud of my service, I did my job, and went where the ship went. That's what was expected of me. The number of ribbons I got never mattered to me, and today doesn't seem to matter to any of the other vets I know.

I do have the scars from upholding Navy Tradition to the fullest in many ports of call. I look at them with fond memories of my youthful days.

Remearmr,

Darren hit it right on the head....success is serving your time honorably and getting out in one piece. You shouldn't feel like you are a lesser Soldier for only serving in NI. Your serving!!!!! You deserve what ever is offered to you.

Right said! Robbo, you answered the call, did things that the majority of our societies no longer do, and I doubt you signed up for the future possibility of freebies.

A successful career? My DD 214 has "honorable discharge" checked. What more could I ask for?

Medals tell a story.

Well depends on what you call a career I suppose? But a hitch or two is not a career? Sorry but a career is when you serve till retirement. And in that case medals do mean the difference. For promotion to the rank of Sergeant and Staff Sergeant medals count for Promotion points! That is important if you wish to stay in I.E. a career! For E-7 and up awards also mean chances for promotion. To the Promotion authority medals tell a story of your performance under different situations! And to the Military that means allot! Sorry Folks one hitch does not make a career! It is the ones who stay who need awards to move up. I am not saying that serving honorably is not enough for a hitch or two but for a career they definitely matter!

medals tell a story and dont tell people of a successful career.
a good amount of the US ribbons/medals are unit based and freebies almost. not too many are about an individual person persay.
myself, although i wanted a huge rack/salad bowl on my chest, i didnt quite get it. out of the 4 i got, 3 were really, freebies...kinda. good conduct- which is a gimmie as long as you can not get in trouble for 3 years. sea service deployment with 1*. really a freebie as well. just need to be overseas. meritorious unit citation and humanitarian awards. these are unit based, so if your unit went and you were along with, you got them.
out of those ribbons/medals, only one of them is something that i earned individually, and its not even hard to do. the others are unit based and are given regardless if you stayed on the ship with the rest of the unit or went ashore. in all, they are to tell a story. thats about it to me. even if i didnt get anything, i would still be proud of my service. the stories wouldnt be as much fun to tell tho...

I cant agree more here. With that said, while I never served in the military I was a member of the NYPD for 25 years and achieved the rank of Lieutenant and only receiver 25 Exceptional Police Duty Medals. My good friend and old partner who is still on the job and is currently the most decorated Lieutenant in service, he has 4 Combat Crosses and over 150 other medals, says that I was a better cop and boss then him.
So I would say Medals dont make the career,the person does, just my $.02

While Ribbions are sometimes given for Service (Overseas Ribbon, NCO Development Ribbon,Etc,Etc) You have to do something to earn them! There are Service members who don't go anywhere or do anything of merit. That is just the way it is. A "Carreer" is definde by goals and achievments. Just going along for the ride is not by definition a successful career! Medals Show Both Valor and Achivement. Which means you exceeded the goals set! So again I reinrerate They do matter in showing a Successful Career. I server till retirment and they made a difference in promotions and assignments. So yes they are Required for a Successful Career. Just serving a hitch is not a career!

I couldn't agree more.
In this day and age so many folks get medals for just showing up in some cases. While others don't recieve half the recegonition they deserve.
I want to know what's behind the medal, i.e. the solider. That's what matters.

I am retired Navy. A few ribbons along the way and an Aircrew pin.

I was only proud of one. The Presidental Unit Citation. A very rare one.

The rest were just a pain in the ass to maintain.

Well........the pin was a good thing too.....lol

If you gave it your best and served faithfully......it was an excellent career.

Hell.........it's a tough job.......doesn't matter what you did.

Winter

Medals don't make a career, they just help tell a story of that career. You can't use it to judge success. I was in Special Operations for about 12 years and then CSAR before that, so I had a greater opportunity to be awarded more than some. Does that make me better?? NO all it means is that I may have a different story than most...

J

Here is an example



and another

The best medal I have is coming Home alive. No other medal can bet that.
Better then the MOH/VC or any other. IMHO
Cheers,
Bruce/Combat Veteran 4 Tours