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  1. #46
    One simple and easy way to see if you have rated the CAR.. https://www.manpower.usmc.mil/pls/ap...H_PI_VALUE:YES go to that link and enter your info.. If you are not on there and feel that you should be.. Then contact your command from G/2/5 and someone from the G1 check.. If not you may need to contact HQMC. But I think that your CO from the Unit you participated in a COmbat zone with must send the request up..


  2. #47
    That site is also supposed to work for the Humanitarian Service Medal....but it's not 100 percent. SRB says I have one, DD-214 says the same thing....but I'm not there LOL.

    Guess I'm a poser huh


  3. #48
    Well Lep if you are a poser then I guess I'm an obese polecat


  4. #49
    Sorry Lep,
    The PSR got me to that link post Iraq. I used it and my info appeared. After I got out, I attached to a reserve MP Unit and went to Iraq. When I got back and EAS'd again. I didnt recieve a final 214.. My last 214 from "active duty" didnt have any of my awards on it.. Oddly, the reserve unit wanted to push paperwork through for awards, deployment dates, etc post deployment. Nasty Reserve Officers...
    So When I went to check into my Current unit, I didn't know until the PSR checked 3270, a database for admin with your SRB info in it..
    Long of the short, I thought that this link was solid.. Sorry guys


  5. #50
    No, no! I'm sure it works fine for you younger guys....but some of us older, 'well used' folks, it may not.

    I'd consider it a reliable source to check for anyone post 2002 or so for sure. Thanks for posting it up.


  6. #51
    I think you rate it if your post got lit up with rpgs and saf but...you're telling me none of your posts shot any rounds back..... sh!t.


  7. #52
    One of the Female Engineers got one while we took fire for 5 seconds and shooting in the wrong direction i think you rate one.


  8. #53
    Well, it's the same thing with a purple heart. Someone who gets killed and someone who gets grazed get the same award for sh!t that's not even close the same.


  9. #54
    Quote Originally Posted by GolfTwoFive0311 View Post
    I've been out of the Marines since December 2008. Deployed once to Iraq between April 2007 - October 2007. Was in Ramadi for the first month and then Karma for the remaining six months. I was an 0311 team-leader with Golf 2/5.

    Anyway, even though I've been out the Marines for over a year now, something still bugs the hell out of me. I was never awarded my CAR, despite having spent 7 months patrolling hundreds of miles, setting up dozens of ambushes, standing hundreds of hours of post, and filling thousands of sandbags in that IED-infested, miserable hellhole.

    I feel like I rate it but I never made an issue out of it while I was in because I didn't want to seem like a complainer. My senior Marines made it a point to remind my peers and I every single day how much worse they had it during their first deployment and how little us boots rated. The prospect of asking my certified war-hero platoon commander to enter me in for a CAR was intimidating to say the least.

    So, you're probably wondering if I actually rate a CAR but that depends on how you define "combat" I guess.

    Is seven months of sustained patrolling through an area infested with IEDs considered "combat"? The enemy is actively trying to kill or maim me, and the actions I take largely determine whether or not he will succeed; one of the Marines in my platoon lost his leg to an IED...the only difference between him and I is that I was able to avoid getting blown up. Was I not in "combat" simply because my squad was highly proficient at locating IEDs before they blew us to smithereens? We probably found several dozen IEDs during the course of our deployment, all of them designed to kill or maim me and my fellow Marines. The only reason they didn't was because our squad was disciplined and professional; we were highly proficient at patrolling and avoiding IEDs. I think that alone is enough to rate a CAR.

    I also experienced several mortar attacks, one of which landed about 15-20 meters outside the Alaska barrier my squad was up against. Had it landed on the other side of the barrier, I wouldn't be here today.

    Lastly, I was on post during a coordinated attack on our COP. RPG's hit our sandbags and posts, mortars were landing around the COP, sustained small arms fire was directed at our position, and a VB-IED blew up the IP checkpoint about 300 m North of our pos. While all of this was happening, I was coordinating between our posts, the company COC, the Iraqi police, and my platoon's COC. My position on post was as the Iraqi Police Liaison, and my job was to coordinate between the Marines and the IP's via radio; I had to learn a decent amount of Arabic to do this job proficiently, which I did, once during a complex attack on our COP.

    So, my question is...do I rate a CAR and, if so, how would I go about getting it now that I'm out of the Marines?

    Sorry the post was so long but this is something that's been eating away at me for a while now. I feel ashamed that I don't have my CAR and I still think about it from time to time. It's hard to not have one when it was all you heard about for three and half years straight...

    Semper Fi.
    You don't rate a CAR. You were never in combat. You got your OIF campaign medal, be proud of that. But you were never in combat.

    Kandahar Airfield gets pelted with mortars and RPG attacks everyday. You think the thousands of pogues and fobbits actually rate a CAR? **** no.


  10. #55
    And let me just add, giving the CAR to a guy who never even fired his weapon in anger accomplishes nothing but cheapening the merit of the ribbon for those of us who were in sustained kinetic combat operations for 9+ months. If you wanted it that badly and it was a pride issue, you should have reenlisted and went to Afghanistan where you most likely would have gotten it. Otherwise, don't complain. I was only awarded a NAM with a V but a LT who did the exact same thing I did with an almost identical citation was awarded a bronze star with a V. Why? Because I was a CPL and he was an LT. Is it fair? No. But who cares b/c I know what I did, and I brought my Marines home alive and that is the ONLY thing that matters. When it comes down to pride and someone asks me what i'm proud of, its bringing the Marines in my squad home alive to their families and seeing their families waiting for them with their families when we got off the bus. The CAR or NAM w/V on my chest is an afterthought and just more crap I have to worry about when the ball rolls around.


  11. #56
    I was at Kandahar Airfield for two days on my way back. That b*tch has a TGI Fridays and a KFC...what...the...****. I don't think anyone there for a deployment knows what a condition 1 weapon is let alone combat. IEDs and IDF suck but its no where near rounds cracking over your head or hiting the wall in front of you. No comment on medals...at least the people who know what happend know the truth...


  12. #57
    Marine Platinum Member Zulu 36's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Backhaus 1103 View Post
    I was at Kandahar Airfield for two days on my way back. That b*tch has a TGI Fridays and a KFC...what...the...****. I don't think anyone there for a deployment knows what a condition 1 weapon is let alone combat. IEDs and IDF suck but its no where near rounds cracking over your head or hiting the wall in front of you. No comment on medals...at least the people who know what happend know the truth...

    Not anymore. Gen McChrystal shut them all down a year or so ago.


  13. #58
    I was there about two weeks ago...


  14. #59
    Marine Platinum Member Zulu 36's Avatar
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    Petraeus must have let them re-open. A lot of AF and Army people were crying when they closed (my oldest daughter was at Bagram when the closures went down).


  15. #60
    Quote Originally Posted by USMarine0161Vet View Post
    Sorry Lep,
    The PSR got me to that link post Iraq. I used it and my info appeared. After I got out, I attached to a reserve MP Unit and went to Iraq. When I got back and EAS'd again. I didnt recieve a final 214.. My last 214 from "active duty" didnt have any of my awards on it.. Oddly, the reserve unit wanted to push paperwork through for awards, deployment dates, etc post deployment. Nasty Reserve Officers...
    So When I went to check into my Current unit, I didn't know until the PSR checked 3270, a database for admin with your SRB info in it..
    Long of the short, I thought that this link was solid.. Sorry guys
    Quote Originally Posted by Sgt Leprechaun View Post
    No, no! I'm sure it works fine for you younger guys....but some of us older, 'well used' folks, it may not.

    I'd consider it a reliable source to check for anyone post 2002 or so for sure. Thanks for posting it up.
    Just for the record...

    This link accurately shows the CAR I recieved for "Operation: Just Cause" in '89.

    Although, I do get a "security warning" from my browser when going to that link.


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