I would have thought the "Find Ribbon" and the "international cadet exchange" was the hardest to obtain, while the "community service" and "CAC" ribbons were the easiest?
Are certain ribbons much harder to obtain?
Red Service Ribbon... easiest for sure. All you need to do is breathe, pay your dues, and not do anything stupid for 2+ years... 8)
Find can be difficult, in terms of opportunity, but I think The Spaatz Award remains the most difficult to earn, based on the amount of effort required.
Distinguished Service Medal-95% go to Wing , Region commanders, and National Staff Officers
Silver Medal of Valor: Have to put your life on the line to save anothers.
Quote from: MSG Mac on June 18, 2017, 04:56:51 AM
Silver Medal of Valor: Have to put your life on the line to save anothers.
Does that have to be while "on duty" for CAP? Or could one earn it for say rescuing someone from drowning while not on a CAP mission, exercise or whatever?
Quote from: jfkspotting on June 17, 2017, 07:15:10 PM
I would have thought the "Find Ribbon" and the "international cadet exchange" was the hardest to obtain, while the "community service" and "CAC" ribbons were the easiest?
Are certain ribbons much harder to obtain?
Hardest or easiest to obtain? They're all the same. Obtain them by sending your order to Vanguard along with payment.
Hardest to earn? That's a completely different question. But not an easy one to answer until you define hardest and easiest. And after that comes relativity. IACE is easy to earn - just go, don't embarrass yourself, then come back. Of course, you don't get to go without applying and getting selected, and the selection process could conceivably look back over several years worth of a cadet's career. Meaning that the application process could have been underway before a cadet even knew what IACE was.
Silver Medal of Valor doesn't have to be hard to earn. But known risk to self must be present.
Personally, I worked much harder to earn my Mitchell than I did to earn my Earhart.
You're really not going to get a satisfactory answer. All of the awards are different, serve different purposes and have different criteria. Easiness or hardness is very much an individual thing.
From my own (admittedly unique - as is all of our) experience, the hardest for me to earn was the Gill Robb Wilson award.
I had to put in a LOT of hours on that one, and had to get the four levels previous to that as well.
The easiest? Gotta agree with the Red Service Ribbon. Exist for two years, pay your dues, and don't do anything dumb, and it's yours.
Jack
So it is possible to get a red service ribbon without ever completing level 1?
Quote from: N6RVT on June 18, 2017, 05:37:13 PM
So it is possible to get a red service ribbon without ever completing level 1?
Just pay the renewal fee, but be an active member.
Quote from: N6RVT on June 18, 2017, 05:37:13 PM
So it is possible to get a red service ribbon without ever completing level 1?
Yep. Literally.... breathe, pay dues, and behave.
"b. Red Service Ribbon. Awarded at the end of 2 years (as a cadet or senior member in good standing)."
Don't even have to be "active".
Quote from: Eclipse on June 18, 2017, 05:52:20 PM
"b. Red Service Ribbon. Awarded at the end of 2 years (as a cadet or senior member in good standing)."
Don't even have to be "active".
True dat. I have two clasps worth of "breathe, pay dues, and behave".
Quote from: ColonelJack on June 18, 2017, 11:39:41 AM
From my own (admittedly unique - as is all of our) experience, the hardest for me to earn was the Gill Robb Wilson award.
I had to put in a LOT of hours on that one, and had to get the four levels previous to that as well.
The easiest? Gotta agree with the Red Service Ribbon. Exist for two years, pay your dues, and don't do anything dumb, and it's yours.
Jack
Would agree with you there.
I submit that the Unit Citation Ribbon can be the easiest ribbon of all to earn. A new member can join CAP near the end of the citation period (even on the very last day), do nothing to contribute to the success that the unit is being cited for, and wear the ribbon with the rest of the unit when the NHQ personnel action announcing the award is published.
Of course, it can also be among the hardest to earn if you're one of the major contributors to the success that the award is given for.
Quote from: MSG Mac on June 18, 2017, 04:56:51 AM
Distinguished Service Medal-95% go to Wing , Region commanders, and National Staff Officers
Also known as the "Commander's Good Conduct Medal."
Quote from: MSG Mac on June 18, 2017, 04:56:51 AM
Distinguished Service Medal-95% go to Wing , Region commanders, and National Staff Officers
Which is correct as that is the
scope of that award. A DSA, by regulation, requires impact at the national level
and CSAG
approval. I can't imagine an activity or staff service that had a scope of less then Region-level which would also rise to the attention of the CSAG.
See 39-3 Page 6: https://www.capmembers.com/media/cms/R039_003_83459660D4F44.pdf
Quote from: KASSRCrashResearch on June 18, 2017, 06:07:53 AM
Quote from: MSG Mac on June 18, 2017, 04:56:51 AM
Silver Medal of Valor: Have to put your life on the line to save anothers.
Does that have to be while "on duty" for CAP? Or could one earn it for say rescuing someone from drowning while not on a CAP mission, exercise or whatever?
Not an award that one really goes hunting for but to answer your question, no. There is no requirement that the saving of a life must be performed "on behalf of CAP" or while "on duty".
There are cases of the SMOV being awarded to members who run into a burning house on the way to/from a CAP event... and there are cases of the SMOV being awarded to members who run into a burning house on the way to/from the grocery store.
The Membership Award is among the easiest ribbons to obtain, because, frankly, it doesn't require as much effort as it should. And it should probably die, anyway, since in almost all cases, it's a double award (the other one being a promotion).
The Red Service Ribbon is awarded for longevity, and that's all. So I guess that's the easiest, though certainly there are some that are a cakewalk.
My Yeager Award ribbon was darned easy, but then again, I was a cadet back when the Mitchell exam was nothing but a comprehensive aerospace exam as a capstone for Phase II. I SHOULD have known all the answers (and did).
Easiest and hardest is open to a lot of interpretation when it comes to awards.
It would stand to reason that the less common awards are "harder" to get, like the decorations and mission-related ribbons. But at the same time, I think the people who do get those awards look at their service with a "just doing my job" attitude, and may not see it as anything particularly "hard".
As an example, I have a disaster relief ribbon with V device.
I got it years ago by volunteering to help local emergency services during a disaster. I rode around with them, laying sandbags to protect peoples homes, identifying and marking areas where the road had washed away, and, ironically enough, transporting water.
I don't think I did anything that was difficult in itself, but it is still "hard" to earn in the sense that you can't just make a disaster happen.
A "Find" ribbon would be another example. You could get the ribbon spending a day making coffee and taking notes as an MSA, but you can't just make a mission happen.
On the flip side, the "easy" cadet recruiting ribbon was actually pretty difficult for me, because all of my friends were people already in CAP.
Of all my ribbons, I would say that the membership ribbon ties with all the cadet achievements (except Arnold) and the Yeager as the "easiest", and the "hardest" one I've earned was my NCC ribbon with stars.
I think that the Frank F. Borman Falcon Award, the Wartime Service Ribbon, the Blue Service Ribbon and the White Service Ribbon would be the most difficult to get, since they aren't awarded anymore...
Quote from: Offutteer on June 29, 2017, 09:40:55 PM
I think that the Frank F. Borman Falcon Award, the Wartime Service Ribbon, the Blue Service Ribbon and the White Service Ribbon would be the most difficult to get, since they aren't awarded anymore...
Ah, not necessarily. Getting them is pretty easy - assuming, of course, you can find a collector who will sell one of them to you. (The Falcon ribbon was still available as recently as the CAP-MART era, but I don't know if Vanguard is offering them, and I don't have the time right now to check.)
Earning the right to wear one officially on one's uniform, however, is not difficult ... it's impossible.
Abracadabra.
Jack
Quote from: Offutteer on June 29, 2017, 09:40:55 PM
I think that the Frank F. Borman Falcon Award [. . .] would be the most difficult to get.
Meh. I have one, and I think the total effort expended was writing two renewal checks.
Of course, the original "ribbon" was actually a small enameled metal piece that was particularly difficult to mount in the ribbon rack. The actual ribbon came along later.
Quote from: Ned on June 30, 2017, 04:19:12 PM
Quote from: Offutteer on June 29, 2017, 09:40:55 PM
I think that the Frank F. Borman Falcon Award [. . .] would be the most difficult to get.
Meh. I have one, and I think the total effort expended was writing two renewal checks.
Of course, the original "ribbon" was actually a small enameled metal piece that was particularly difficult to mount in the ribbon rack. The actual ribbon came along later.
I think the concept behind the Falcon award was entirely wrong from the beginning. That's probably why it was eventually done away with. What they should have created was an award for former cadets (probably with a minimum of a Mitchell award or a Certificate of Proficiency) who had made a success in their adult life. However, that would have been very difficult to quantify which might be why it never happened.
Quote from: Eclipse on June 19, 2017, 03:51:17 PMA DSA, by regulation, requires impact at the national level and CSAG
approval. I can't imagine an activity or staff service that had a scope of less then Region-level which would also rise to the attention of the CSAG.
I can. [emoji41]
And there are something like less than 200 Falcon Awards; even rarer than the Spaatz.
Quote from: AlphaSigOU on July 17, 2017, 01:31:25 PM
And there are something like less than 200 Falcon Awards; even rarer than the Spaatz.
In this case, rarity does not equate to difficulty. The Spaatz was the summit of the hill climb, the Falcon was literally given out to any Spaatz recipient who remained in CAP for two years after turning senior. Hardly an accomplishment.