According to AR 600-8-22 the goal of the Army awards program is to foster mission accomplishment by recognizing excellence of military members of the force and motivating them to high levels of performance and service. As senior Noncommissioned Officers, one of our most important responsibilities is to ensure that Soldiers are identified for excellence with the way they performed in their jobs. Unfortunately, there are many leaders that are not following the guidance set forth in AR 600-8-22. The Army award system is broken, complete with quotas, undeserving recipients, degraded value of awards, and a negative impact on Soldier moral.

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