>>7494669
A lot of the problem with it came down to things being a labyrinth of processes. Some of it was just deparmental disorganization - you get lost in the numbers or someone jots down some things on a pad of paper that disappears into the abyss of entropy… So your OIC never knows to submit the atta-boy for you.
If you took your own proofs and then submitted the paperwork for your own medals and comms… You could use the process to fight for yourself regardless of why things went missing or were never filled out.
But… Again… I wasn't the type to write up my own award credits. Most people who deserve awards aren't the type to constantly ask for one.
And so the process was kind of self-fuelling. The competent people who were rock stars often just did what they do and never saw themselves as exceptional. The idiots who were achieving something monumental to fill out a spreadsheet got recognized because they made something simple look hard - either intentionally to avoid being asked to do more or because it… Just was harder for them. These are the people who review boards tended to favor because - again - if you have two people in front of you and you have very little but their service record in front of you - you are going to pick the one who looks more accomplished to advance. Now that person is in command of additional people and as you get higher in the ranks, you are supposed to mentor the juniors and establish the climate.
If you had good leaders looking out for you, they made sure to recognize their rockstars and tempered their bestowal of rewards for the mundane. I had some good mentors who were not necessarily part of my chain of command… People who probably should have held ranks higher than they did or even been scouted for officer positions much earlier in their careers.
There is still a bit of a divide between officer and enlisted groups - and the requirement for being an officer is a college education… And we all know what that shit has done to people in the civilian world. While officer academies aren't as literally insane as the arts schools…. I will say that they are often cultured to believe we "need" them to civilize us. Which… Considering some of the antics in a barrack/berthing…. Maybe so, but people who steal dildos can't point fingers.
Anyway - the subversion kicks into high gear when you look at how advancement of senior ranks is determined. If I am a Chief in the Navy and people in my department are getting NAMs and other awards left and right - then I am seen as being better for my command - look at all the sailors I am mentoring to success. Even if I am not advanced baded on that, the pressure is there for other chiefs and officers to make their people look competitive next to mine. In this way, it turns into a clusterfuck of handing out awards possibly just to dilute the nonsense elsewhere.
Similar to how evals became. If you weren't at least a 4.0 sailor on a 5 point scale (because the CO could only hand out one for every 20 people or something like that for 5.0s) then you must have been a shitbag. The whole concept of a standard eval got distorted by inflation… And the sudden attempt to fix it and reset the system kind of got wonky as hell.