? for u Marines on the air medal

[platoonDaddy]

Reading the obit from back home, guy received 32 air medals and retired as a GySgt, I searched on the qualifications and located the following, but doesn’t go into specifics. So what are the specifics for a marine receiving an Air Medal?

The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps have two types of Air Medal awards: "Individual" for singular meritorious acts and "Strike/Flight" for participation in sustained aerial flight operations.
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Obit
Bob retired from the Marine Corps as a gunnery sergeant. He served three tours in Vietnam, earning 32 Air Medals, a Navy Achievement Medal, several other awards and citations and Bronze Stars for courageously rescuing other Marines in battle

[Hank6046]

Reading the obit from back home, guy received 32 air medals and retired as a GySgt, I searched on the qualifications and located the following, but doesn’t go into specifics. So what are the specifics for a marine receiving an Air Medal?

The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps have two types of Air Medal awards: "Individual" for singular meritorious acts and "Strike/Flight" for participation in sustained aerial flight operations.
.

Obit
Bob retired from the Marine Corps as a gunnery sergeant. He served three tours in Vietnam, earning 32 Air Medals, a Navy Achievement Medal, several other awards and citations and Bronze Stars for courageously rescuing other Marines in battle

So I don't have an Air Medal, but the guys I served with in both Medium and Heavy Helicopters that did mainly got it for humanitarian missions, like the 2015 Earthquake in Nepal, or for single combat deployments. The Marine I know best got his in Bangladesh in 2007 with the floods, and then received a second for his deployment to Afghanistan. The only person I know with multiple during 1 tour was Col. Coffman who I served under on a MEU, he piloted a CH-46 to the top of a building, dropping the ramp for wounded Marines, only to take an AK round to the chin, and still managed to fly the bird home.

For this GySgt to get 32 is pretty wild, but I know Vietnam was a different world from what it is now operationally. Our pilots have to have so much sleep, our maintenance cycles are pretty stringent, pilot and aircrew qualifications are reviewed and updated as needed. I'm not sure any of this was really followed back then.

[chuckman]

I didn't do anything with wingers; my only knowledge was a guy I was in officer school with, another Mustang who was a crewman on a -46 who had the air medal (I had to ask him what it is) and the combat aircrew wings,

[CRAMBONE]

Seems excessive. Are you sure the obituary is correct? And not sure what the ground equivalent is.

[utahjeepr]

Mongo not know, Mongo grunt Marine. 32 seems like a LOT (where do you put all the sa stars?), and they should have led with the Bronze Star. Just sayin.

[Averageman]

I had a 1 Sgt that served multiple tours in Viet Nam and had 18 Air Medals, I guess you were rather busy in the 101st back then.
Humble dude but very impressive in his dress Blues.

[seb5]

I have a friend, an officer that was a former USMC enlisted crew chief for 12 years. He had double digits air medals and he told me that it was by number of missions in a combat zone. I don't remember what the number he told me was. I goggled this.

The Air Medal was awarded for aerial flight operations. These flight operations include three actions:

Strikes
Flights
Direct Combat Support
“Strikes” includes actions like search and rescue and are met with enemy opposition, evacuation of personnel in an assault, or delivering heavy artillery against the enemy.

“Flights” have the same requirements as strikes but do not come across enemy contact or opposition.

“Direct Combat Support” includes reconnaissance, combat air patrol, electronic countermeasures support, psychological warfare, and coastal surveillance.



With the creation of the Aerial Achievement Medal in 1988 the Air Force stopped awarding the Air Medal for non-combat achievements.

[utahjeepr]

Gotcha. So let's say a helo aircrew inserts a fireteam of grunts. Grunts go forth and do some grunting. Then same helo aircrew exfils the fireteam. Score two airmedals each for the aircrew, whist the grunts in question get hot chow if they're real lucky.

Yeah, sounds like the Corps. No wonder they don't tell grunts these things. ;)

[Averageman]

Gotcha. So let's say a helo aircrew inserts a fireteam of grunts. Grunts go forth and do some grunting. Then same helo aircrew exfils the fireteam. Score two airmedals each for the aircrew, whist the grunts in question get hot chow if they're real lucky.

Yeah, sounds like the Corps. No wonder they don't tell grunts these things. ;)

I'm not sure about the Marines, but if you were doing an Army Air Assault, you could earn an Air Medal

[chuckman]

Gotcha. So let's say a helo aircrew inserts a fireteam of grunts. Grunts go forth and do some grunting. Then same helo aircrew exfils the fireteam. Score two airmedals each for the aircrew, whist the grunts in question get hot chow if they're real lucky.

Yeah, sounds like the Corps. No wonder they don't tell grunts these things. ;)

"Well done, Marine, you saved an entire platoon single-handedly, routed an enemy onslaught numbering at least 100, you rendered life-saving aid to your wounded, and through your proficiency of speaking the native language were able to engage in integrating a platoon of native soldiers, and you also delivered a baby.

In keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Naval service, we are proud to present to you the Navy Achievement Medal."

[Lawnchair 04]

The individual award is given for a singular act to a specific aircrew member. The strike/flight side is a points based award. The s3 keeps a record of the types of flights the aircrew was involved in and they earn points towards the strike flight medal. A regular GS mission could be a half a point where as a hot extract or casevac could be several points. I don’t know off the top of my head how many points equals a strike flight medal. The wall of prior CO’s in my squadron from the Vietnam era have as many as 80 air medals. I do believe the requirements were different back then however.

[CRAMBONE]

"Well done, Marine, you saved an entire platoon single-handedly, routed an enemy onslaught numbering at least 100, you rendered life-saving aid to your wounded, and through your proficiency of speaking the native language were able to engage in integrating a platoon of native soldiers, and you also delivered a baby.

In keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Naval service, we are proud to present to you the Navy Achievement Medal."

But not with a “V” device because the war is “over”.