The Navy’s first boot camp ribbon met with jeers when it was unveiled in August and promptly met with disdain by sailors and other service members who. Readers labeled it "pathetic" and warned that the ribbon would turn the Navy into the Air Force. Others called it a "participation award" illustrative of no legitimate military accomplishment.
That's entirely untrue. Neither looks to be the case. The Navy Basic Training Honor Graduate Ribbon is for recruits who excel at boot camp — only the top three percent of every graduating class. On average that's about a dozenXXXXXXXXXX individuals[[[SAM, CAN WE APPROXIMATE A NUMBER HERE, OR A RANGE?//A.deG.]]]. So the ribbon is exclusive; it recognizes That makes this a recognition of excellence, not mere participation.
And it doesn’t turn the Navy into the other services. The Army and the Air Force, by contrast, offer ribbons to for all those who complete basic training. The a move that the Navy is wise right to have chosen a different path stay away from.
Encouraging But encouraging excellence at boot camp is good for the entire Navy. It conveys to new recruits that their introductory training and education is integral to long-term success and that of the units to which they will be assigned — not merely an eight-week [[[CORRECT? EIGHT WEEKS?]]]experience to be endured 's a good idea, an effort to turn the culture there into more than a place just to get through on the way to the fleet.
To underscore this importance, the Navy needs to Still, the new ribbon’s rules need changes. The most pressing is to make the ribbon retroactive so that all previous honor graduates qualify for it. There are thousands serving who’ve earned this distinction, and many of them would enjoy the chance to add another ribbon to their rack, even if it ranks low on the precedence order. This Making it retroactive would also help promote acceptance throughout the ribbon be more accepted in the ranks, where currently it has been mocked. Sailors The ribbon’s challenge isn’t helped by the fact there’sonly a few half dozen or so junior sailors actually wearing this ribbon right now and the most senior of them is, in all likelihood, a seaman.
What’s more, the Navy has offered very poor logic in justifying its decision to not make the award retroactive. The official explanation — because that training standards are constantly evolving — is offensive to anyone who graduated from boot camp before this ribbon was introduced. As one Navy Times reader correctly surmised, that implies holds little water.One reader took issue with officials’ explanation, saying: "Offense should be taken by those who served prior to August 2015, by the implication that "the standards then were less than today."
The smart course forward is to backdate eligibility so that every honor graduate service should make the honor graduate ribbon retroactive to the inclusion of the Battle Stations 21 training, boot camp's [[[CORRECT? THIS IS A BOOT CAMP CAPSTONE?//A.deG.]]] a capstone challenge since about 2007XXXXXXXXXX [[[IS THERE A YEAR ASSOCIATED WITH ITS INCLUSION IN THE CURRICULUM?//A.deG.]]], now qualifies for this important recognition of the training and teamwork the recruits have learned after eight weeks at boot camp. Doing so will appropriately honor top performance the best and communicate to the entire fleet that That honors the very best and will help make this ribbon represents the standard to which all recruits should aspire much more than proof of who is the newest fleet sailor.
