Medal inflation

Some media reports have highlighted differences in the number of medals awarded to WWII Generals Eisenhower and Bradley and War on Terror General Petraeus

Medal inflation is a term used by the media particularly in the United States to describe the increase in the number of medals awarded to the armed forces in recent times and a perceived devaluing of medals because of this.

United States

Various parts of the American media have discussed the perceived problem of medal inflation; most frequently since the start of the War on Terror in 2001 including articles in the Huffington Post (Dorian De Wind), Newsweek (Evan Thomas) and the NBC News (Michael Moran). It has also been discussed in a 2006 book by Paul Robinson and a 2016 work by Michael P. Kreuzer. Earlier treatments of the subject include a 1979 book (Crisis in Command) discussing the situation in the Vietnam War and a 1996 article in the New York Times. The question discussed frequently is whether the medals are deserved or being awarded at too high a rate, leading to "devaluation" of the award. A counterpoint is that in the modern US military a serviceman's medals serve as his "resumé" indicating his career achievements, rather than serving to show only the most valorous or meritorious service.

Early history

The United States Army, perhaps conscious of the founding fathers' democratic principles, was sparing with its medals. Even distinguished generals such as the Civil War leaders Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman wore few if any medals on their uniform. Indeed the US Army had no medal to recognise valor on the battlefield until the Civil War when the Medal of Honor was introduced. The Medal of Honor was the only such medal until the US involvement in the First World War when a number of other medals were introduced. Controversy over the number of medals issued dates back to at least the Second World War. During the early US involvement in North Africa two US generals visited the front and issued 60 Legion of Merit medals. These medals criteria should have limited them only to very senior officers and the majority of the 60 issued were outside of the criteria. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt disapproved of this action but did not veto the awards. The Second World War as a whole saw a significant increase in the number of medals issued to individual servicemen.

Later 20th century

A large number of service awards (for "time served") were introduced following the Second World War, which increased the number of medals servicemen could expect to receive. The Vietnam War brought about the use of military bravery medals as a means of raising force morale. Historians Richard A. Gabriel and Paul L. Savage state that "medal packages" were common in which an officer received a set of medals merely for holding a certain rank or appointment; leading to a reduction in the perceived value of these medals. Tim O'Brien, who processed awards in Vietnam for his unit, said of the time: "we dispensed awards - purple hearts, one and the same for a dead man or a man with a scraped fingernail; bronze stars for valor, mostly for officers who knew how to lobby".

One award singled out as an example of medal inflation is the Army Service Ribbon, awarded for completing basic initial training, introduced by the US Army in 1981. The 1983 Invasion of Grenada has also been cited as an example: some 8,600 campaign medals were awarded despite only 7,200 troops actually serving in the country. The New York Times also notes the awarding of combat medals to seamen of the USS Vincennes who shot down a civilian airliner, Iran Air Flight 655, in 1988 and the issue of a Purple Heart wound medal to a paratrooper who suffered heat stroke during the 1989 United States invasion of Panama were controversial. The Gulf War of 1990-91 saw almost 3.5 million US service members awarded the National Defense Service Medal, though the majority remained in the United States during this time.

A study in 1994 showed that there was some disparity between the services with regards the frequency of awards. The United States Air Force issued 287 decorations per 1,000 service members in that year, the US Navy 148 and the US Marine Corps just 70. At the time there was pressure on the Marine Corps to increase the number of medals issued to "catch up" to the other services.

War on Terror

The conquest of Iraq in 2003 drew complaints from some that the number of medals awarded was out of proportion with the danger experienced by the troops and that bravery awards were more likely to be issued to officers than enlisted personnel. Of the 26 Silver Stars awarded for the 2003 capture of Baghdad 4 were awarded to colonels, 11 to captains and just 11 to NCOs, none went to privates; of the 104 Bronze Stars with valor device, 32 were awarded to officers and 72 to other ranks (only 4 of whom were privates) and of the 274 plain Bronze Stars 149 went to fficers, 133 to NCOS and just 3 to privates. The Purple Heart, which is awarded automatically for being wounded and so perhaps is more reflective of the danger individual soldiers experience was awarded 88 times, only 10 times to officers, 36 to NCOs and 42 to privates.

The US Air Force came in for criticism for the number of medals awarded during the invasion. Some 69,000 medals were handed out, significantly more than the army (who awarded 40,000) despite that fact that army personnel were, in general, posted to more dangerous locations. The ratio of bronze stars awarded per fatality in the US Air Force was 91:1 and in the army 27:1. The US Marine Corps took active steps to limit the number of medals awarded during the invasion and was praised by some at the time for having "kept the inflation in check"; it awarded just three bronze stars per fatality suffered.

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Historically the commanding officer's discretion in the medal process has meant that the criteria applied have varied widely. Some serving officers have described the perceived trend. Colonel David Hackworth is a noted critic and after a DFC was awarded for a mission in Baghdad which missed its target and killed 16 civilians stated: "in World War II, when I saw a Distinguished Flying Cross, that meant the guy had made 25 or 30 missions over dangerous places like Hamburg or Berlin. Those places sometimes had 50 percent casualty rates. Now, they give medals out to guys who fly bombers invisible to radaer whose bombs miss Saddam and kill civilians in a restaurant. It's an outrage". Colin Powell compared the modern commander's experience with that when he first joined the Army and served in Vietnam: "The Legion of Merit I received? It might have meant more to me in a war where medals were not awarded so indiscriminately. I remember once, as division G-3, attending a battalion change-of-command ceremony at one firebase where the departing CO was awarded three silver stars, the nation's third highest award for valor, plus a clutch of other medals, after a tour lasting six months. He had performed ably, at times heroically. He was popular with his men. Yet, his troops had to stand there and listen to an overheated description of a fairly typical performance ... The departing battalion commander's 'package', a silver star, a legion of merit and air medals just for logging helicopter time, became almost standard issue."

The DFC was first awarded to Charles Lindbergh in 1927 and until the 2002 only 3,300 had been awarded but between March 2002 and February 2004 463 were awarded, with some veterans querying why the increase had been so rapid. Colonel Jack Jacobs who received the medal of honor in Vietnam says "it's an age old problem with the Army and Air Force, too. The authority to approve awards is at a very low level, and that has a tendency to increase their frequency. Plus, there's always a political motive, or component, to giving out awards, to keep morale high and create a positive story for the home front".

The rate of award of some medals, such as teh Medal of Honor, was actually much lower during the early sategs f the wars in Iraq and Afghanistabn. Up to 2009 the rate of medals of honor per 100,000 service members was just 0.1, compared to 2.3 in korea and 2.9 in WWII. Only 5 ahd been awarded up to that time. Reasons cited were the increased technological advancement of warfare, reduction in face-to-face engagements and the rise of IED, mortar and sniper attacls, a backlash against perceived proliferation of medals and an increasingly rigorous and politicised awards system.

Airforce hadns out twice as many decorations per service member than the Navy.

Elsewhere

In the British military teh awrding of medals can be variable, depending on how well written the commanding officer's citations. Prior to Iraq and Afghanisatn the British armed forces had a reputation for rarely awarding gallantry medals, outside of special forces units. After 2003 the number of medals awarded increased. The 1st bn Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment was awarded 37 medals in a single tour, including a VC. Other units judged to be similarly heavily involved in other actions in 2003 and 2006 receivedc only a single MiD each. Has been described as a form of "medal inflation".

Some discontent in Canadian forces over the awarding of campaign medal to all those deployed to the country with no difference between infantry soldiers on patrol and those who stay on base. Anne Irwin, a military anthropologist at the University of Calgary's Centre for Strategic and Military Studies, proposed two new awards a rosette on the campaign medal for those who had been off-base and a combat badge for those who fought. Canada has never before discrimnated between peersonnel deployed on oeprations, though the US does with its Combat Infantryman Badge, Combat Medical Badge, Combat Action Badge (the latter introduced in 2005).