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booksbenji
07-11-06, 08:38 AM
July 10, 2006

New Combat Action Ribbon rules reflect modern warfare

By Christian Lowe
staff writer


It’s the swatch of silk most Marines point to when you ask them what’s the most important award on their chest.

Sporting the gold, red and blue of the Combat Action Ribbon is a subtle way of telling fellow leathernecks you’ve done your job when the bullets were flying.


But after two years of work and growing controversy over whether too many — or too few — CARs were being awarded, the Navy and Marine Corps have revised the criteria that govern who can earn one, modernizing the Vietnam-era rules in “recognition of situations encountered in today’s combat environment.”

Those “situations” can be summed up in one term that anybody who’s been to Iraq knows all too well: improvised explosive devices.

The revised rules, which are detailed in the June 26 Corps-wide message AlMar 025/06, change the language of the official instructions for awarding the CAR to include those who’ve actively participated in a “ground or surface engagement” instead of a “bona fide ground or surface combat firefight or action during which he or she was under enemy fire.” The change broadens the criteria for awarding the CAR to include situations where Marines and sailors may not be under small-arms fire, such as in an IED ambush.

“This is all tied to the IED piece,” said Lt. Col. Jim Taylor, acting awards branch chief with Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va. “If I am the recipient of an IED explosion, I have not returned fire, in some cases.

“We didn’t want the phraseology to eliminate that warrior from being entitled to the Combat Action Ribbon.”

Gone, too, are stipulations that include the defense of a ship under enemy attack, riverine and coastal operations and Marines and sailors participating in peacekeeping operations. If they’ve actively participated in the ground or surface engagement, they’re eligible.

Marine officials say that no previously issued CAR will be revoked under the revised rules. However, the new rules do mean that more Marines are eligible for the prestigious award than before. And Marines can get them retroactively if the new rules fit their situation on the battlefield.

So far, 85 Marines who had been denied the CAR based on earlier rules have been retroactively approved for the award, Taylor said.

The modernized CAR rules come after years of debate over the equity of the award and the situations under which Marines and sailors should earn it.

In 2002, there was grumbling in the Corps over the awarding of CARs for nearly the entire 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s battalion landing team after operations in Afghanistan. The CAR is supposed to be bestowed upon a Marine for his individual action — it is not a unit award, officials explained.

The increasing toll of improvised explosive device ambushes in Iraq and the belief among most commanders that the rules did not allow them to award CARs for Marines hit by roadside bombs prompted further discussion in late 2005, including a letter from I Marine Expeditionary Force commander Lt. Gen. John Sattler to Marine Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee asking for a review of the rules.

After intensive discussions between Navy and Marine awards officials, the language was clarified earlier this year to include IED attacks.

The clarification also said the new IED rule would apply to Marines and sailors as far back as Oct. 7, 2001. And in March, the Corps drew up guidelines to help determine who might have been denied a CAR and now deserved one, and how to submit the names of those Marines and sailors who might not have been considered under the old guidelines.

The latest revision takes the eligibility to receive the CAR a step further, deleting or changing language from the original Navy Department rules written in 1969 and giving commanders greater authority to award the CAR in combat situations that can go from humanitarian operations to pitched combat in seconds.

“The Marine Corps has the most diligent application of awards in comparison to the other services,” Taylor said. “From this point forward, I think we’ve got it right.”


Source: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1941861.php


:thumbup:

thedrifter
07-11-06, 12:47 PM
July 17, 2006

New rules for CAR
More Marines rate the Combat Action Ribbon under broadened criteria

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer

What’s out: “Personnel in riverine and coastal operations, assaults, patrols, sweeps, ambushes, convoys, amphibious landings and similar activities who have participated in firefights are eligible.”

It’s the swatch of silk most Marines point to when you ask them what’s the most important award on their chest.

Sporting the gold, red and blue of the Combat Action Ribbon is a subtle way of telling fellow leathernecks you’ve done your job when the bullets were flying.

But after two years of work and growing controversy over whether too many — or too few — CARs were being awarded, the Navy and Marine Corps have revised the criteria that govern who can earn one, modernizing the Vietnam-era rules in “recognition of situations encountered in today’s combat environment.”

Those “situations” can be summed up in one term that anybody who’s been to Iraq knows all too well: improvised explosive devices.

The revised rules, which are detailed in the June 26 Corps-wide message AlMar 025/06, change the language of the official instructions for awarding the CAR to include those who’ve actively participated in a “ground or surface engagement” instead of a “bona fide ground or surface combat firefight or action during which he or she was under enemy fire.” The change broadens the criteria for awarding the CAR to include situations where Marines and sailors may not be under small-arms fire, such as in an IED ambush.

“This is all tied to the IED piece,” said Lt. Col. Jim Taylor, acting awards branch chief with Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va. “If I am the recipient of an IED explosion, I have not returned fire, in some cases.

“We didn’t want the phraseology to eliminate that warrior from being entitled to the Combat Action Ribbon.”

Gone, too, are stipulations that include the defense of a ship under enemy attack, riverine and coastal operations and Marines and sailors participating in peacekeeping operations. If they’ve actively participated in the ground or surface engagement, they’re eligible.

Marine officials say that no previously issued CAR will be revoked under the revised rules. However, the new rules do mean that more Marines are eligible for the prestigious award than before. And Marines can get them retroactively if the new rules fit their situation on the battlefield.

So far, 85 Marines who had been denied the CAR based on earlier rules have been retroactively approved for the award, Taylor said.

You earn it, you get it

The modernized CAR rules come after years of debate over the equity of the award and the situations under which Marines and sailors should earn it.

In 2002, there was grumbling in the Corps over the awarding of CARs for nearly the entire 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s battalion landing team after operations in Afghanistan. The CAR is supposed to be bestowed upon a Marine for his individual action — it is not a unit award, officials explained.

The increasing toll of improvised explosive device ambushes in Iraq and the belief among most commanders that the rules did not allow them to award CARs for Marines hit by roadside bombs prompted further discussion in late 2005, including a letter from I Marine Expeditionary Force commander Lt. Gen. John Sattler to Marine Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee asking for a review of the rules.

After intensive discussions between Navy and Marine awards officials, the language was clarified earlier this year to include IED attacks.

The clarification also said the new IED rule would apply to Marines and sailors as far back as Oct. 7, 2001. And in March, the Corps drew up guidelines to help determine who might have been denied a CAR and now deserved one, and how to submit the names of those Marines and sailors who might not have been considered under the old guidelines.

The latest revision takes the eligibility to receive the CAR a step further, deleting or changing language from the original Navy Department rules written in 1969 and giving commanders greater authority to award the CAR in combat situations that can go from humanitarian operations to pitched combat in seconds.

“The Marine Corps has the most diligent application of awards in comparison to the other services,” Taylor said. “From this point forward, I think we’ve got it right.”

Quashing controversy

The rule changes also attempt to end the controversy over whether a Marine or sailor has to be fired on and fire back to rate a ribbon. By saying the individual has to “render satisfactory performance under enemy fire,” the rules say a Marine or sailor doesn’t have to fire his weapon when he’s fired on to earn the CAR — but he’s got to be doing his job to the utmost.

“It’s meant to eliminate that potential situation where a Marine demonstrates cowardice under fire or disobeys a direct order,” Taylor said.

The rules further emphasize the CAR may be awarded to Marines and sailors engaged in clandestine operations that preclude them from engaging the enemy. Navy awards officials wanted to ensure the new CAR rules did not leave out SEALs, whose duties often keep them from firing on the enemy.

The modified commando language applies to Marine special operations troops and reconnaissancemen as well.

“What we intended to do was to define the box a little better to say that the intent is to describe those people who by the nature of their mission are restricted in their ability to return fire — not by virtue of the specific assignment that they’re on,” Taylor said.

The rule revisions are also expected to dampen controversies sparked by some recent CAR awards.

In late 2001 and 2002, hundreds of Marines from the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 26th MEU were awarded CARs for a firefight near their compound and for a mortar attack at Kandahar airfield. Few 15th MEU Marines — who were among the first to take ground in Afghanistan — were awarded the CAR.

Marines from the 26th MEU held their noses in August 2005 when the entire Navy crews of the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge and dock landing ship Ashland were awarded CARs after a single rocket fired by terrorists flew over their ships docked at the port of Aqaba, Jordan.

The MEU’s leaders refused to submit their Marines for the award, believing the brief incident did not constitute an “engagement,” officials said.

“There was some degree of consternation about that situation,” Taylor said.

The CAR revisions coincide with an ongoing Navy Department overhaul of all its awards for Marines and sailors, Navy and Marine officials said. A draft of the newly edited awards manual has been forwarded to the Navy’s top manpower official; the final version is expected to be released by the end of the summer.


Award eligibility
A June 26 Marine Corps message laid out major changes in eligibility for the Combat Action Ribbon. The highlights:

Defining combat

What’s in: “…the individual must have rendered satisfactory performance under enemy fire while actively participating in a ground or surface engagement.”

What’s out: “…the individual must have participated in a bona fide ground or surface combat firefight or action during which he or she was under enemy fire … .”

Defining the situation

What’s in: “Direct exposure to the detonation of an improvised explosive device used by an enemy, with or without the immediate presence of enemy forces, constitutes active participation in a ground or surface engagement.”

What’s out: “Personnel in riverine and coastal operations, assaults, patrols, sweeps, ambushes, convoys, amphibious landings and similar activities who have participated in firefights are eligible.”

“Personnel assigned to areas subjected to sustained mortar, missile and artillery attacks who actively participate in retaliatory or offensive actions are eligible.”

“Personnel aboard a ship are eligible when the safety of the ship and the crew were endangered by enemy attack, such as a ship hit by a mine or a ship engaged by shore, surface, air or sub-surface elements.”

All three circumstances are now covered under the “ground or surface engagement” clause, and were deleted and rendered “unnecessary.”

Ellie

thedrifter
07-11-06, 12:48 PM
July 17, 2006 <br />
<br />
How to claim your CAR <br />
<br />
So you think you rate a Combat Action Ribbon now that the rules have changed? Fortunately, the Corps has outlined a three-phased approach to bestow the award...