Forum: Air Force Life

Has anyone else seen this? An AFGCM just popped up on my vMPF today. Wasn't there the day before, but today, it is there. The GCM was abolished in 06, but apparently now is back. I haven't seen any official announcement yet, but if you check your vMPF, you may find that you now have the medal, or a cluster if you'd already received the award prior to FY06.

I asked my Chief, and the Awards and Decs shop, and they both said that they hadn't heard anything, but if it's on my rip, then it is legal to wear.

Anyone know anything about the medal's official return?

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I've heard rumors of its return. Maybe they think that since Airmen are no longer getting medals for 'Good Conduct' there just saying "Screw it, let's have fun!"

Medal or not, I would think that the Air Force probably has more important things that they should be worrying about. Isn't it about time for some new uniform, or maybe a new line of reflective belts?

Mike

MKopack wrote:

Medal or not, I would think that the Air Force probably has more important things that they should be worrying about. Isn't it about time for some new uniform, or maybe a new line of reflective belts?

LOL!

Nothing on af.mil about the GCM coming back...

Only thing found on af.mil was this:

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123016465

Good Conduct Medal award elimination explained

by Master Sgt. Mitch Gettle
Air Force Print News

2/17/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The Air Force Uniform Board announced Feb. 6 that the Good Conduct Medal will no longer be awarded.

The Air Force director of Airman development and sustainment recently explained the reasons behind this decision.

"The quality of our enlisted personnel today is so high, we expect good conduct from our Airmen," said Brig. Gen Robert R. Allardice. "It begged the question, ‘Why do we have a Good Conduct Medal?’"

"Having a medal for good conduct is almost to say we don't expect Airmen to do well, but if they're good we will give them a medal,” he said. “It's kind of insulting in our Air Force today."

One must look at the history of why the medal was created in the 1960s. The military was using the draft and involved in the Vietnam War. The Air Force didn't have any other method to recognize Airmen. Today, the Air Force Achievement Medal recognizes outstanding Airmanship.

“When we looked at that history it was clear that the Good Conduct Medal has outlived its usefulness," said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Gerald R. Murray. "Today’s all-volunteer force is committed to serving honorably, and good conduct is what we expect from every Airman -- officer and enlisted.”

“We live by our core values,” Chief Murray said. “When members of our service stray from those values, they do themselves and all Airmen a disservice. When that happens, commanders have the tools they need to evaluate the situation and the individual's worthiness for continued service.

"If a commander deems their conduct does not warrant discharge, then they remain a valuable Airman to our Air Force, and we expect them to continue to serve honorably,” he said.

General Allardice said that it is the uniform, not the Good Conduct Medal, that represents what Airmen are all about.

“In today’s Air Force, our Airmen understand that the uniform they wear represents good conduct,” he said.

Airmen who have previously earned the Good Conduct Medal are still authorized to wear it.

Good Conduct Medal poised for comeback

Tens of thousands of airmen likely to receive retroactive award upon its return
By Seamus O’Connor - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 16, 2008 9:31:56 EDT

You can’t keep a good medal down.

The Air Force Good Conduct Medal, discontinued by the service in late 2005, is poised for a comeback, and enlisted airmen were happy to hear it.

The medal’s reappearance stems from January’s awards summit — a meeting held every four to five years to discuss awards and decorations. There was collective agreement among the personnel office representatives to reinstate the award, Air Force spokesman Capt. Thomas Wenz said. A proposal to that effect is awaiting approval of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, who is expected to decide on the proposal within 30 days.

If the proposal is approved as is, the medal would be retroactively awarded from the date it was discontinued, giving tens of thousands of airmen a shot at the award. Criteria for the medal remain the same, Wenz said.

READ MORE: Who rates the medal
The decision to discontinue the Good Conduct Medal came out of a meeting of the Air Force Uniform Board in October 2005, which decreed that no more GCMs would be awarded, though airmen who had received the award could continue to display them and keep the awards in their records. Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley approved the change.

In a Feb. 8, 2006, news release announcing that decision, the Air Force offered this rationale for discontinuing the decoration: “[G]ood conduct is expected, and should not be regarded as exceptional.”

However, the medal’s demise rankled many airmen, especially among the enlisted corps, the only airmen eligible for the medal.

“If we start slicing away bits and pieces [of] enlisted history, then it kind of shows a disrespect to the enlisted side of the house,” said Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Hughes, of the 81st Training Wing, Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.

The medal’s historical value was a key factor in the decision to propose its return, Wenz said, adding the reversal is “a part of our efforts to reclaim the heritage of the Air Force. We want people to embrace the heritage of the Air Force, especially our younger troops.”

‘Pat on the back’
Enlisted airmen interviewed by Air Force Times were unanimous in their support of the medal’s return.

In an age in which all airmen are expected to conform to the highest standards and adhere to the service’s “core values,” the good conduct medal still bears meaning, Hughes said.

“Not everybody has good conduct, unfortunately, and I think those [who] are most deserving should be awarded it.”

To Tech. Sgt. Jason Hutchison, of Keesler’s 81st Comptroller Squadron, the rationale for eliminating the decoration made sense, but the medal’s value to young airmen merits its return.

“As a young troop, everything that you get in the Air Force is kind of special to you,” he said.

As airmen progress through the ranks, the medal serves as a signpost in the roadmap of their careers, said Senior Master Sgt. James Weller, a member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s 111th Fighter Wing and of the Orders and Medals Society of America.

In the Guard, Weller said, a GCM ribbon on your blues shows you came from the active side of the house. If you’re an officer, wearing a GCM tells your enlisted troops you’ve marched in their boots.

It can also be a matter of family pride: “If you have a tradition of service within your family ... you can look back and your father and grandfather might have received the award,” Weller said.

To a young airman, the medal represents a rare reward for “hard work in day-to-day operations,” said Airman 1st Class Shaunlee Salyers, of the 37th Training Wing at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. “It’s not daily that you get a pat on the back for what you do.”

‘Conspicuous by its absence’
If the medal proposal is approved, it would be the first time since the creation of the Air Force that the service discontinued and then reintroduced an award or decoration, said Charles P. McDowell, a former president of the medals society.

“It struck me as kind of strange that the Air Force would unilaterally do away with its Good Conduct Medal while other services hadn’t taken any comparable action,” McDowell said. The Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and even the Air Force Reserve and Air Guard all issue good conduct medals.

The Air Force medal was created by Congress on July 6, 1960, and the basics of who can qualify for it can be altered only with the approval of Congress and the president, said Denise Harris, chief of Air Force awards policy and programs. But Wenz said the board’s decision didn’t overstep federal law because it didn’t set out to eliminate the medal entirely, Wenz said.

Reinstated, the good conduct medal would again serve as carrot and stick for young airmen, Weller said. Though the presence of the medal is almost ubiquitous on enlisted airmen’s uniforms, “the omission of the award stands out just as much,” he said.

So says the award’s own guidelines: “The AFGCM is conspicuous by its absence. Failure to qualify for the award casts doubt on an individual’s value as a member of the Air Force.”

And that concept is not lost on young airmen.

As a military justice paralegal, “I see pretty much all the people that do get in trouble and that aren’t really doing anything positive for the Air Force,” said Airman 1st Class Audri Chavez, of the 37th Training Wing. “I just feel like there are so many people ... that are representing the Air Force in a positive way, the Good Conduct Medal is just another way to show” approval.

TC, I just had one show up in my vMPF today with an oak leaf cluster! Kick a$$ I got another medal..............the stack is growing. From what I've read, it as reinstated as of Feb 2009.

Well, this morning they unfortunately pulled mine. So, I must extend my most sincere thanks to the brainless hacks at MPF. I had already bought 2 new ribbons, 2 new ribbon holders and a mess dress medal in preparation for it, and now it's gone.

Foxtrottin' booger eating ground pounders. I work my hardest, so that a $219 million aircraft and its crew and cargo, and possibly any passengers don't all turn into a smoking hole, but these bozos can't even correctly keep my vMPF rip properly updated.

Oh yeah, while you $h!theads obviously aren't doing any real work, why don't you go ahead and give me the OLC on my Air Medal that you've owed me since September?

^^^^^There is a reason why we work on aircraft and they push paperwork.

Because we scored well on our ASVABs, and they obviously sucked at life? Or is it that we're the type of people whom the AF feels they can trust around millions of dollars of equipment...Meanwhile, these knuckle-draggers obviously can't even be trusted to run Windows properly?

Oh well. It takes all kinds, I guess...

This was sent to me several years ago. I figured since the AF is messing around with the Good Conduct Medal, but still gives out the Training Ribbon...

Heh heh! I know more than a few folks who can claim a couple of those ribbons. The SrA For Life and DUI and Still in Service Ribbons could both be claimed by one guy in my squadron.

If that clown ever sews on Staff (which isn't going to be this year...AGAIN!) it will be the biggest party in the history of my Wing, I think. Of course, since he also holds the ribbon below SrA for Life, he won't be allowed to drink at that party either.

That ribbion chart is hilarious and some oh so true!

Yeah, that's the real problem. I think the AF has cheapened a lot of its awards by inflating the awards and decs chart with seemingly "double ribbons", if you will. Some of these, you can earn more than one at the same time for really doing the same exact thing.

But they take away the GCM? That makes sense. What makes even more sense, was that the medal for enlisted personnel only was taken away by a group of officers.

Like Arsenio Hall would say, "Things that make you go 'Hmmm...' "

Air Force Association Daily Report - 02/12/09

Like It Never Left:

Air Force officials announced Wednesday that the service has reactivated the Air Force Good Conduct Medal, as of Feb. 11, and will award it retroactively to airmen who qualify going back to the decoration's suspension in 2005. "We're going to make it so that there was never a gap," Lt. Gen. Richard Newton, head of manpower and personnel on the Air Staff, told reporters. The reinstituted medal will be presented to all airmen who accumulate three years of good conduct. Air Staff officials began working in January 2008 on the restoration of the decoration—the second oldest medal in the Air Force's history—in concert with the service's top enlisted man, CMSAF Rodney McKinley. McKinley said at the briefing that the decision to cancel the medal back in 2005 came from the belief that all airmen are expected to exhibit good behavior at all times, making an award for good conduct a bit redundant. But the move had "unintended consequences," he said, as it raised the ire of many retirees and was perceived as a slight to the enlisted corps. "It's been a goal of mine to bring this back," said McKinley.

TC wrote:

Oh yeah, while you $h!theads obviously aren't doing any real work, why don't you go ahead and give me the OLC on my Air Medal that you've owed me since September?

It took over a year for me to get my Air Medal OLC this last time. Not sure why it takes so damn long, but go to MPF on Blues Monday's and check out the banana republic 3rd world General ribbon racks on the MPF wennies. I no kidding counted 21 ribbons on one guys chest, how the hell does anyone who never leaves the country get 21 ribbons.

Forum: Air Force Life

Return of the AF Good Conduct Medal