CAP Awards

[Spike]

 Going from Army to AF Reserve was a "culture shock".  I had more ribbons than the Colonel, served more time overseas than most, and had to stop using certain acronyms. 

Ribbons are meant to reward CAP members for accomplishments.  If we had none, why would a person stay in CAP??  Telling a person "great job on that mission, is great, but backing it up with the award of something and doing it in public where everyone can see it is the PAY we all receive.

I do think though the options should be in place to wear all, some or none (including Cadets).   

[Hawk200]

Good point. For the life of me I can't think of what the other ones were, but I remember two or three of the NPS airman that had started on a third row.

What struck me as weird one day was seeing a number of one and two stripers with five, I saw a Staff Sergeant at the little mini PX that day with only five (BMT, Longevity, PME, GWOT-S, NDSM, Good Conduct). That seems unbalanced to me.

....

Were these airman you saw at Keesler actually tech school students fresh from BMTS or were they follow on students/permanent party.

Yes, they were fresh from Basic. That's what NPS means: Non Prior Service.

[AlphaSigOU]

When I read a CAP rack, I'm looking mostly at the bottom and top rows.

The bottom rows tell me what you actually did, the top tells me someone likes you (or did at one time).

The mid-rows are kind of an attitude filter about PD - if you're a 1st Lt. with a 25 on your Red Service, or a Major with no Level II, it says
"something".  What that "something" is varies, and does not imply a negative or positive.

That's why I'm not a fan of short-stacking, because the ribbons tell a story as a whole, leave some out and you're leaving out pieces of the puzzle.

Which is why I carefully arranged my 'short stack' to present a 'Reader's Digest Condensed Books' version of my CAP ribbon résumé. I do like to wear a full ribbon rack but as I'd already mentioned it's a little unwieldy.

[lordmonar]

Good point. For the life of me I can't think of what the other ones were, but I remember two or three of the NPS airman that had started on a third row.

What struck me as weird one day was seeing a number of one and two stripers with five, I saw a Staff Sergeant at the little mini PX that day with only five (BMT, Longevity, PME, GWOT-S, NDSM, Good Conduct). That seems unbalanced to me.

....

Were these airman you saw at Keesler actually tech school students fresh from BMTS or were they follow on students/permanent party.

Yes, they were fresh from Basic. That's what NPS means: Non Prior Service.

I still don't know how they could have come up with five.  If they were Army or ANG before joining up they may have had the Army Rainbow ribbon or something like that....but that is about it.

Either way......if they had five...then they earned them.  Maybe it was a give away like the NDSM and GWOT-S.  But we have had to deal with those sorts of medals since the 1940's.

So...back to CAP.

I would like to limit the number of meaningless ribbons but still reward people for their hard work doing their job, and getting the PD done.

At the same time I would like to see that the requirments be streamlines and standardised.

All in all just clean it up a bit.

[Eclipse]

How about we take the lead on this and convert from static, cloth ribbons, to an 3x2" OLED display, or perhaps add something like the
Phillips electronic cloth?

You only buy your "rack" once, ribbons are automatically added when eServices is updated, and no one would ever have the order wrong, mounting backwards, or weird configurations of attachments.

For cadets or foreign generals the display could autoscroll.

[NCRblues]

  lol @eclipse, Thank you I needed a good laugh to make my day better.

[MSgt Van]

 :clap:

[Nolan Teel]

That is the first thing thats ever made sense on here!  I salute you! :clap:

[vento]

What Eclipse said!  :clap:

[flyboy53]

Incorrect. 

If anything, and done per regulation, the Level 1 process today is much better than it was before, and has no analog to military training.

Comparing ribbons between services, especially non-combatant volunteer vs. combatant military, doesn't work.

I disagree, in the NYW, many units, especially those in the western part of the state, did seminars with instructors....that's what I meant. As for comparing military and CAP, we've been doing that this entire thread. As for your other digital ribbon idea...cool, best yet! Star Trek lives!!! I just think there's got to be a better way to illustrate senior member training than six or more ribbons.

[ltcmark]

The bling on CAP uniforms is not even close to what the active duty services have.  I came up with the following count. (It is by no means 100% accurate, but it is close).

Army 75 left side, 10 right
USN 93
USAF 86
Coast Guard 97
Marine 90
This does not include Guard ribbons from each state.

Our sister branch - Coast Guard Aux 30

Now for CAP:
CAP Senior 32
CAP Cadet 39
We have a long way to go to catch up to the active duty.  Bling away.

[Hawk200]

The bling on CAP uniforms is not even close to what the active duty services have.  I came up with the following count. (It is by no means 100% accurate, but it is close).

Army 75 left side, 10 right
USN 93
USAF 86
Coast Guard 97
Marine 90
This does not include Guard ribbons from each state.

Our sister branch - Coast Guard Aux 30

Now for CAP:
CAP Senior 32
CAP Cadet 39
We have a long way to go to catch up to the active duty.  Bling away.

What exactly are you counting as "bling" ?

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

Using NORAD as an example:

The Commander of NORAD, General Victor "Gene" Renuart, Jr, USAF:

http://www.norad.mil/leaders/Bio_Gen_Renuart_Nov09.pdf

Deputy Commander of NORAD, Canadian Lieutenant General J.M. Duval:

http://www.norad.mil/leaders/Duval_EN.pdf

Both very accomplished officers, with one "star" rank difference, but a whole lotta fruit salad difference (of course, some of General Duval's bling is close to Knighthood).

But something more akin to our status as noncombatant auxiliaries:

The Commandant of the UK Royal Air Force Air Training Corps, Air Commodore (BG equivalent) Ian Stewart:

http://tinyurl.com/RAFATC

OK, it might be apples and oranges...but I still think we have too much chest candy, both on the auxiliary and military side.

[Eclipse]

The Commandant of the UK Royal Air Force Air Training Corps, Air Commodore (BG equivalent) Ian Stewart:

http://tinyurl.com/RAFATC

OK, it might be apples and oranges...but I still think we have too much chest candy, both on the auxiliary and military side.

RAF uniforms, in general, tend to be pretty low-key, and their grade structure is more suppressed as well, making much heavier
use of the idea of a "Flight Officer".

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

The Commandant of the UK Royal Air Force Air Training Corps, Air Commodore (BG equivalent) Ian Stewart:

http://tinyurl.com/RAFATC

OK, it might be apples and oranges...but I still think we have too much chest candy, both on the auxiliary and military side.

RAF uniforms, in general, tend to be pretty low-key, and their grade structure is more suppressed as well, making much heavier
use of the idea of a "Flight Officer".

Except with them (along with Australia, New Zealand, India and Canada until 1968), Flying Officer is a commissioned rank, equal to First Lieutenant with us.

Their ranks are more descriptive of "aviation" than ours; i.e., Flight Sergeant, Squadron Leader, Pilot Officer, Wing Commander, Group Captain...

[Gunner C]

Good point. For the life of me I can't think of what the other ones were, but I remember two or three of the NPS airman that had started on a third row.

What struck me as weird one day was seeing a number of one and two stripers with five, I saw a Staff Sergeant at the little mini PX that day with only five (BMT, Longevity, PME, GWOT-S, NDSM, Good Conduct). That seems unbalanced to me.

A lot has to do with what sort of assignments and TDY's you get. 

Were these airman you saw at Keesler actually tech school students fresh from BMTS or were they follow on students/permanent party.   It is not unreasonable for brand spanking new airman fresh from tech school get sent to the desert on an AEF rotation.  4-months in the desert gets them the GWOT-E and/or the OEF/OIF medals.  If they do an outstanding job it is not unusual to get an AFAM out of the deal.

On the subject of the SSgt only having ribbons after 4 years in service.....well if you spend all four years in the states and do not deploy you would not have gotten the opportunity to get any medals and ribbons.

It is the nature of our warfighting in the last 15 years or so that has kicked up the number of ribbons and medals AF people earn.

Back in the Cold War days....Airman could expect one overseas assignment and maybe 1 or 2 TDYs (usually to Turkey, German or Korea) over a 20 year career.  The Gulf War changed all that.  Now most everyone is expected to go the combat zone for 4 months out of ever 18 months (if you believe the AEF model  ).  Each one of those opens an opportunity to get a medal (or two or three).

So...I don't think it is at all unusual to see and Airman with more bling than a SSgt.  You just got to know the history.  Which is one of the whole points of having bling in the first place.

It also has to do with what you do and when you do it.  If you look at my ribbon rack below you'll see that all of my stuff is "thanks for showing up" and "enjoyed you while you were here."  Many of us were in combat during "peacetime" and weren't afforded combat decorations.  One of my army achievement medals was downgraded from a bronze star, another was downgraded from an air medal.  The JSCM is also a peacetime downgrade.  I know that this is an extreme but there's lots of folks walking around with RASH awards who actually got out there and did stuff.  Personally, I kinda like it - it's the "You don't know as much about me as you think" type of thing and it's kinda fun.

[flyboy53]

I always look at my decorations: five Commendation Medals (one for non-combat valor at a  A-10 crash) and two Achievement Medals as that I guess I measured up once or twice in my life. I always tell everyone else, however, that I just kept my nose clean. The one AFCM for non-combat valor was an upgraded Achievement Medal and the last AFCM was awarded instead of a MSM at my own choice because it was coming from a Brig. Gen. wing commander that I knew personally and respected. Otherwise, it would have had to go to 14th Air Force and that's never a guarantee of an award.

[James Shaw]

Leave them as they are and wear all of them. I dont think it is a bad idea but I seriously doubt it would even be considered by NHQ or the AF.

[ltcmark]

What exactly are you counting as "bling" ?

Just the ribbons, for all services mentioned.

Badges are easy since they are limited to 1 per position.

[MSgt Van]

If you look at my ribbon rack below you'll see that all of my stuff is "thanks for showing up" and "enjoyed you while you were here." 

That top one appears to be an MSM - got that for just showing up?!