lacrew wrote: “The odd thing, which I think will surprise most civilians, is that most in the military could not correctly identify half of the ribbons the generals wear.”
Neither could half the generals identify all their medals.
I was surprised by the medals my Bde S1 told me to wear.
To me, the strangest and almost embarrassing medal was the NDSM. I was ‘awarded’ it for merely being on active duty during the first Gulf War.
I also remember at the time, the combat service medals for the gulf war included people who had been in country many months after the shooting stopped - I saw people making up every excuse in the book to spend a few days in Saudi or Kuwait, just to get a combat patch and campaign ribbon. Ticked me off, because I knew people who had actually been in the fight...didn’t seem right that they wore the same medals as the late comers.