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SOF is its own worst enemy when it comes to awards. The conventional guys that got slapped around in Herat, Afgh. in 2004 got silver stars and BSMw/V left and right. It took me a month to get my men air medals for flying back into that shit to rescue the ones who got the silver stars. I was told to put them in for ARCOMw/Vs by the Bn CSM and got called on the carpet when I refused and put them in for BSMw/V. Fortunately the conventional command took care of my team and the 23rd ID CG awarded them air medals, but I had to get my ass ripped by the chain of command for it. They deserved a hell of a lot more than what they got and our own chain of command who freely gave BSMs to mechanics and cooks in Khandahar got pissed off about it.
Considering that crap it would take a whole lot to even think about putting one of the boys in for even a silver star.
Probably the best thing to do is to write it like a CMoH and shoot for a BSMw/V. Hopefully someone up the food chain will see the need to upgrade.
There are more than a handful of SOF guys out there well deserving the CMoH.
The system is borked badly and needs to be fixed. Always has been.
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