Grinding Axes

In the last few days it's been in the news that President Trump has ordered that Navy Achievement Medals (NAM)  handed out to the prosecutors of Chief Eddie Gallagher be rescinded.  This case got elevated to national level several months ago.  Of course there are two sides to every story, but it sure appeared that this guy was getting railroaded and the Navy lawyers were engaged in some underhanded practises.  In the end he was acquitted of murder but as expected there are follow on stories.  If you've not been keeping up, here's a story from the NY Times that provides a good overview.  Of course, you have to get past all the prejudicial language that is present anytime you read a NYT story that includes Trump.  But you get the gist.

If you're not conversant with the military awards system it's sometimes difficult to explain it to an outsider.  The reality is that they are pretty subjective and not always awarded according to merit.  But in the context of the military, they are important.  Napolean famously said that "a soldier will fight long and hard for a piece of colored ribbon".  The awarding of medals ebbs and flows with the status of the country's military.  In a time of war, they tend to be generously awarded.  In a time of peace, the military is more stingy with them.  And the different services have differing philosophies.  The Navy is notoriously stingy with handing them out and the Air Force is notoriously generous.  When I was in the Pentagon the contrast between Navy and Air Force officers with the similar experience and grade level were usually pretty dramatically different.

The NAM is handed out for pretty routine things and are an easy way to acknowledge a job done well.  There are all kinds of reasons for handing it out including end of tour and achieving a good grade on an external evaluation.  It's one of the lowest personal achievement medals as you can see in the chart.  But having said that, it still looks good on your record.  

So now the old salts and the lawyers and the expert pundits emerge with outrage.  They are beside themselves that the CINC would reach down to an individual case and rescind the medals.  But with Trump no one should be surprised at anything he does.  I think he sees these guys as losers who tried to cheat to win.  Simple as that.  And he doesn't believe in rewarding losers.  Should the CINC get involved in a single case so far below him that it's difficult to see?  Probably not but he'd already gotten involved when he set Gallagher free from the ridiculous confinement that the command had put him in.  So not only does he not want to reward losers, he is invested in it.  And we all know what an ego he has.  

But in looking at this case, it reminds me of the controversies a few years ago of naming an LCS ship after Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and an LPD ship after John Murtha.  There was outrage at Secretary Mabus and President Obama for going so far away from tradition.  I was one who lamented this egregious breach of tradition and wrote about it here.  But you know what?  I've come to understand that outrage about something you have no control over is useless.  The medals will get rescinded, the ships will get named, leaders will inject politics, and I can't change any of it.  So as a famous band once sang...Let It Be.  

Probably the best antidote is humor.  Saw an article on Duffel Blog this morning that deals with the medal dust up titled, "Thousands of officers with Bronze Stars terrified after Trump rescinds four bullshit awards".  You can read it here.  Hilarious.  And probably contains more than a grain of truth.