Combat Action Ribbon

[GolfTwoFive0311]

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.

[DocGreek]

.....PLEASE.....fill out your PROFILE....COMPLETELY.....THANK-YOU!.....

[TinDragon]

http://www.mrfa.org/CAR.criteria.htm are the criteria to get the CAR.

Essentially it looks like you have to take fire and return it.

[GolfTwoFive0311]

http://www.mrfa.org/CAR.criteria.htm are the criteria to get the CAR.

Essentially it looks like you have to take fire and return it.

Yea, I read that but the wording is slightly ambiguous. It says:

The principal eligibility criterion is that the individual must have participated in a bona fide ground or surface combat fire-fight or action during which he/she was under enemy fire and his/her performance while under fire was satisfactory.

I (1) "participated" in a bona fide ground or surface fire-fight or action, (2) was under enemy fire, and (3) performed satisfactorily.

I dunno...guess I should just forget about it. Damn green-weenie strikes again...

[GolfTwoFive0311]

.....PLEASE.....fill out your PROFILE....COMPLETELY.....THANK-YOU!.....

Sorry Doc. I'll get right on that.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Actually, I disagree. Based on what I read from YOUR posting, as well as the criteria (which has been changed since I was in....old days, you had to 'take fire and return it...which is why I don't have one from the Pentagon on 9/11....sure didn't 'return' sheet LOL). Anyway, it sounds to me like you rate it.

You'll need documentation of course. After action reports are best, signed statements from 'higher' (SNCO's, Officers) are next best. You'll have to submit for a change to your DD-214. You'll then get issued a "DD-215", which is a corrected copy.

Do NOT give up. Sounds to me like you rate it. Period.

[Vandrel]

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?

While I never agreed with the policy that went into effect allowing IED blasts to be a criteria for a CAR, I do recall several years ago when they were handing out CAR's like candy to anyone who was in the "vacinity" of a IED blast, if a vehicle in a convoy was hit then a CAR was awarded to everyone. When I heard about that I was a little upset.

Receive fire, Return fire..... simple as that

These days if you check the box on step 1 and take fire but don't manage to hit step 2 and fire you weapon.... you get a MEDAL.

It sounds like you were in some ****, I don't doubt that at all but when I was there in 2003 during the invasion we even had folks who didn't get a CAR because they were not involved in a Receive fire and Return fire situation during the entire deployment where as the rest of us were and got our CAR's.

Another fine example was when I was in Ramadi in 2008 working the district HQ for the IP's. We took pot shots, random sniper fire and even a nice little fire fight right accross the street busting up the side of our building as well as a huge VBIED right outside our wall. Guess what? No CAR for that deployment.

While it all lays on the OIC's shoulders to make the call on a CAR chances are if you didn't get one it's because it wasn't approved BUT there's always a possibility it's because Lt. Smuckatelly didn't even submit it. As already suggested, you need to get up with your old SNCO's from your deployment as well as whoever your OIC was and beat the dead horse until you get some type of documentation.

The CAR is a big deal in terms of benifits later in life, don't just let it pass

[Riven37]

Example: I was pined down by a sniper in Nam, I had no weapon, after some guys on our hill took out the sniper; that event did not place me with a CAR either but in time I did get mine through other actions.

Yea, I read that but the wording is slightly ambiguous. It says:

The principal eligibility criterion is that the individual must have participated in a bona fide ground or surface combat fire-fight or action during which he/she was under enemy fire and his/her performance while under fire was satisfactory.

I (1) "participated" in a bona fide ground or surface fire-fight or action, (2) was under enemy fire, and (3) performed satisfactorily.

I dunno...guess I should just forget about it. Damn green-weenie strikes again...

[Zulu 36]

I was told that one didn't have to physically return fire themselves. If they were in charge of a unit under fire and was directing the return of fire and performed satisfactory in doing so, one rated the CAR. Leaders are not always expected to return fire personally since their #1 job is to lead and direct.

[Lynn2]

Well I am a VN vet. In a lot of fire fights. Took and returned fire many times. I never was awarded a CAR at the time nor did any of the Marines I served with.

But we sure did not need some records keeper back in the rear to tell us if we had been in bad combat or not.

[DocGreek]

.....HE! HE! HE! HE!.....you mean that I was supposed to SHOOT BACK at the enemy who had just wounded, and killed Marines in my Platoon????......OR blown the heads, arms, or legs off some fine young and brave MEN?
ME?...SHOOT BACK...IN A FIRE FIGHT?????.....HA! HA! HA! HA!
Read my DD215, it's in MY PHOTO ALBUM.
ANCHORS AWEIGH!!!!......."GREEK-UP!!!"......Doc Greek....

[GolfTwoFive0311]

Screw it.

Eat the apple...

[William Hardy]

Plain and simple....
Back when they "invented" the CAR, we had Marines who were wounded by incoming rockets and mortars. They got a Purple Heart, but no CAR..reason....combat action was defined as an exchange of small arms (fire fight) and witnessed by a SNCO or officer. Punji sticks, booby-traps, etc were not counted. So despite the fact that I have been in numerous rocket and mortar attacks and shot at while on courier missions, I never rated a CAR..and that's OK. My service ribbon says I was in country and everyone who was there knows that there was no "safe place". Don't whine about not getting the CAR. Just be proud that you served and you are one of the Few and Proud.

Semper Fi

[GolfTwoFive0311]

Plain and simple....
Back when they "invented" the CAR, we had Marines who were wounded by incoming rockets and mortars. They got a Purple Heart, but no CAR..reason....combat action was defined as an exchange of small arms (fire fight) and witnessed by a SNCO or officer. Punji sticks, booby-traps, etc were not counted. So despite the fact that I have been in numerous rocket and mortar attacks and shot at while on courier missions, I never rated a CAR..and that's OK. My service ribbon says I was in country and everyone who was there knows that there was no "safe place". Don't whine about not getting the CAR. Just be proud that you served and you are one of the Few and Proud.

Semper Fi

Like I said...screw it.

I just think it's stupid to define "combat" so narrowly. Those haji MF'ERS were too pussy to show their faces and give me the chance...there's nothing I would have loved more than to put a 5.56 in their brain-housing group.

[William Hardy]

I know what you mean. At the rip ol' age of 57 I went to Iraq back in 2006. I was the day shift operations Sergeant, but I got to go out on a 4 day mission. I feel like a lot of guys should have gotten a CAR in Nam or that the CAR should never have been issued in the first place. The Army has so many different badges that those guys that went on regular convoy security runs got "drivers badges" rather than combat infantry badges. I guess they just wanted to distinguish those who went out regularly from those who only saw a small part of the war....tell that to the WWII vets who made the landings and whose combat experience lasted from minutes to hours before their combat days ended...I personally think that any arbratrary time limit or type of activity is unfair to many.

So I agree with you...It is stupid to define "combat" so narrowly.

Semper Fi