When I was 19, I joined the army and....

[F2d5thCav]

Speaking of awards, I had a master sergeant retire while I was on active duty.

He had told me about his "participation" in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley.

So when he retired, I put him in for the Meritorious Service Medal as not only an end-of-tour award, but end-of-service award.

Oh, Christ.  All of the smart-shitters up the chain of command knew "better".  NCOs didn't get the MSM, and so forth.

I wasn't buffaloed and kept pushing his Vietnam service, particularly that rendered in the Ia Drang Valley.

By the time I moved to a new assignment, the chain of command was still refusing to give him an MSM.  He retired with an ARCOM.

But after I left, someone who must have been moved by my arguments (probably another person who was a veteran of Vietnam) was able to quash the resistance of the chairborne commandos.

Some time after I left service, the master sergeant and I spoke on the telephone to catch up.  He chuckled and said, "Guess what.  They gave me that MSM you put me in for."

Yeah.

Cheers