Good looking badge Vic -- I'm glad you finally got it! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Haha, thanks. Not as prestigeous as your eagle, globe and anchor, Tom. But it is pretty. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Yep, looks great. I'm glad for as well. Maybe we can arrange some kind of hazing cerimony, similar to the ones we used to get for promotion or earned breast insignia (aircrew wings, jump wings, SCUBA bubbles). Haha, just kidding, a bit painful.

Hey Vic, where's that bar? I loaded that stuff for a couple years myself!

Wow, I have read about a few different situations of people claiming to be prior or current service when they are not nor have been. Not too long ago on a local/state gun board someone linked a Georgia state gun board by a member that is retired EOD (?) Anyway the link was about a Georgia gun show where an seriously overweight guy was going around claiming to e a high speed operator. Anyway, the guy was called out by a member who is a member of the respective high speed outfit and basically dressed the impostor. You might be asking why this was even on an Oklahoma gun board, well besides the obvious the same game had impersonated a captain after the Webber Falls Bridge accident several years ago. Basically the impostor sowed up to a sight of where a barge had hit I-40 and destroyed a bridge, several people drowned including an Army officer, had some credentials and claimed a laptop with sensitive info. This kind of person makes me sick to no end.

IIRC, there are groups that will seek impostors out for stolen valor.

The Bar is Bourbon Street Bar in Brunswick, GA. Bloody Marys will be the special on election night for the democrat blood bath to be shown on the big screen TVs! Didn't you recently retire from the AF? They didn't give you no stinking badges either? They award them out of Tech School now. Speaking of which, my daughter graduates from Intelligence Operations School in 3 weeks. Yep, they get a skill badge for that, too. I guess if you can get an ice cream cone with wings badge for 3 weeks at Ft. Benning, graduating from a six month course rates a badge. She comes home for a week and then off to Hurlburt Field for SERE training with AFSOC. Then she goes overseas.

Badges? We don't need no stinking badges! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

I think if you're going to do that hazing ceremony, I better pin that badge to my back pocket. Lots of padding there! I had three opporunities to go to jump school at Benning, after Army ROTC Summer Camp at Ft. Bragg, after graduating UGA, and after completion of Armor Officer Basic at Ft. Knox. A lot of the combat arms leaders did that. Since my M-60A1 tank was only about 10 feet high, I didn't figure I needed a parachute. I took the Motor Officers Course instead, where I learned that tank inside and out. But you don't get no stinking badge for that. My career in the US Army was not impressive. I went in a LT and came out a LT. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif" alt="" />

Nope, no badge for me! But I did get a ribbon for surviving basic! Seems like they are trying to make medals/ribbons worthless. Don't want the little darlins to get their feelings hurt cause everybody else got one and they didn't. Now I don't see anything wrong with giving out badges/medals or what ever for your Specialty, but they SHOULD NOT make it look like something that DOES mean something, Like the SEAL badge, or Purple heart or Bronze star... you get my drift. For Crying out loud, my uncle got a Purple heart in Vietnam cause he got stung by a scorpion!

Great to hear about you daughter. I guarantee she has and will continue to earn her badge.

I could hardly believe it when I found out they got a ribbon for basic. "Dorm Guard and KP" I guess. Do they still do KP? But at least we got a stripe upon graduating basic. Now they don't get E-2 until 6 months later. BTW, my daughter bypassed E-2 and was promoted to E-3 recently. She has over 20 hrs college and enlisted for 6 years, so she gets that as incentive. The skill badges make some sense. Kind of like the Rate the Navy has. It identifies a skill level and general career field. When I first saw an airman with a skill badge, I had to look twice. At first I thought it was jump wings. But that is just a skill, too, when you think about it. It's just a three week school. But when you see a sailor wearing the trident, you know he is among a very few select warriors.

I also joined the AF in 1974 for 6 years. Got 2 stripes right out of basic. Yup, I have no problem with skill or "Career" badges. BUT some should NEVER be imitated in any way, shape or form. SOME badges ARE earned, and the earning aint easy.

Your uncle really got a purple heart for a scorpion bite? I thought you had to be wounded in action for those. Hell, I should have a pocket full of purple hearts is that's true. Getting hurt or injured is not the same thing as getting wounded in battle. One badge I respect is the combat infantryman badge, although some staff people managed to get those. The Ranger Tab is another hard to earn award.

Well, I guess the Marines are the only ones that actually require you to EARN ribbons, medals, and breast insignia. It took a year and a half to get my Aircrew wings, and my first medal/ribbon was my good conduct medal, that's three years of good behavior for that one!