challenge coins

[Bill Bryant]

I've just learned about challenge coins.

Should I give my son a Recruit Training Regiment challenge coin at MCRD graduation, or do challenge coins actually mean something a little later as they represent other bonds--campaigns, companies, etc?

I'm new to this. Talk to me about challenge coins.

[Bill Bryant]

The boards seem to be acting up today. I'm bumping this to the top to make sure people see it.

[William B.]

There would be absolutely nothing wrong with giving your son a challenge coin. Marines get challenge coins for promotions, deploying with their unit, graduating USMC and DOD schools, the Marine Corps Ball, etc.

Sometimes Generals, Sgt's Major, MOH awardees, Old Corps veterans, and others will have personal challenge coins that they give to Marines at their discretion.

[Bill Bryant]

So you end up needing to have a dozen different challenge coins in your pocket every time you go in a bar?

[William B.]

I've never actually seen that happen and I lived in Jacksonville, NC (aka Camp LeJeune) for 13 years.

http://terminallance.com/?p=361

[Bill Bryant]

So the tradition of an actual challenge is pretty much gone, and you can just keep them in a case as you collect them?

[William B.]

Maybe somebody else on this board has a different experience, but I've never had anybody pull a coin on me. To me they commemorate some hard times I spent with some good Marines... and yes. I do keep them in a display case :p

Just so you know I've followed your posts about your son and I want you to know (although I already know that you are) that you should be very proud of him.

[Bill Bryant]

Just so you know I've followed your posts about your son and I want you to know (although I already know that you are) that you should be very proud of him.

Thank you for those kind words. I am proud of him indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing him in a couple of days and giving him his first challenge coin right after graduation.

[CarlosDJackal]

I've never actually seen that happen and I lived in Jacksonville, NC (aka Camp LeJeune) for 13 years.

http://terminallance.com/?p=361

The last time I saw a challenge coin used in a bar was while I was in (State) OCS. After the training, a bunch of us Candidates were sitting at the post club when a retired SF guy came over and coined one of my fellow candidate who happen to be SF as well. My buddy had to buy him a drink.

That was also the first time I learned about the use of the challenge coin. I now keep my current unit's challenge coin in my wallet just in case.

[theblackknight]

TL pretty much sums it up for me. If someone thinks I'm going to buy them a drink because they have some monopoly money with their unit on it, they are gonna have to knock me out and take the money. I don't go to bars in jacksonville anyway.

I also tend to stay away from dudes w raging high and tights aswell. Good rule to live by.

[Bill Bryant]

If someone thinks I'm going to buy them a drink because they have some monopoly money with their unit on it . . .

Is this your view of military traditions/heritage/ceremonies/symbols in general, or just your view of challenge coins?

[theblackknight]

Depends on what's traditions your talking about.


The MC ball? Fuxking awesome. Youngest and oldest cutting the cake.all the nco wearing their swords to cut the cake with. Its ball season gents!


Traditions like giving staff and officers pistol but never formally training them? Gay.still treating officers like they are royalty?gay. Drive your own dam car, SIR.

[Bill Bryant]

What's the MC ball?

[theblackknight]

What's the MC ball?

The Marine Corps Birthday ball. One of the few functions a Marine can wear the dress alphas (dress blues w medals).traditions include, Lejuene's bday message, the CMC's bday message, cutting of the cake by the youngest and oldest Marine present,guest of honor speech, and getting soo blasted your medals fall off and you barely make it back to your hotel room.if you show up sober, your not doing it right:happy:

[John_Wayne777]

The Marine Corps Ball.

[Bill Bryant]

The Marine Corps Birthday ball. One of the few functions a Marine can wear the dress alphas (dress blues w medals).traditions include, Lejuene's bday message, the CMC's bday message, cutting of the cake by the youngest and oldest Marine present,guest of honor speech, and getting soo blasted your medals fall off and you barely make it back to your hotel room.if you show up sober, your not doing it right:happy:So they got rid of the lash and the sodomy but kept the rum.

[Army Chief]

While the tradition of "coining" a fellow Soldier/Marine at the club has grown less prevalent over time, this hasn't really changed the fact that most units still have them minted, nor has it made it any less signficant when one is received, since this is still recognized an informal form of validation and commendation in the profession of arms.

Personally, I would do it. It will mean a little bit to your son now, something less as he goes on to his first couple of operational assignments, and much, much more years later when he ends up with a display case full of them, sees it, and remembers not only his first days in the Corps as a young man, but also the fact that his very own "old Man" was the one who gave it to him. At that moment in time, it won't really be about the coin, but rather the memory of the day on which Dad recognized him as more than just a man -- the day he became a Marine.

I still have the coin from the Infantry Training Brigade that I was first assigned to some 26 years ago, and while I feel no special connection to that unit, the memories it evokes are significant to me now, as I draw nearer to the end of my life as a career Soldier.

AC

[120mm]

IMO, coining is dead. It is now common practice in Army units to offer coins for sale, for God's sake.

It used to be a cool thing. Now it's just overdone. There are PLATOONS that now have their own coins.

Typical Army idiocy, institutionalizing and therefore killing a good thing.

Kind of like giving Reservists funeral flags upon returning from OIF/OEF in the "Welcome Home Warrior" ceremonies.

"Warrior?" Like living on a FOB for a year makes someone a warrior... And WHY for the love of Mike did they pick the shadowbox funeral flag as a symbol?

[Bill Bryant]

IMO, coining is dead. Do you have any coins yourself that you cherish nonetheless because of their personal significance to you?

[Bolt_Overide]

Ive gotten a few over the years, Ive got em all in a cigar box back home, nothing terribly hot to brag about, but they are mine, and I earned them.

My dad gave me a couple from his day, one of which is from a CPT. Schwarzkopf (dont ask, he wont tell).

[Ak44]

Challenge coins are Old Corps imo. I've never seen anyone actually legitimately pull one out and try to "challenge" someone. I think I would laugh and walk away. But then again I'm a dumb Grunt what do I know :D.

Marine Corps Balls from what I've heard are suppose to be fun, like watching your SgtMaj break dance. I was always on Deployment during the Ball, never been to one in all my four years in.

[JSantoro]

Do you have any coins yourself that you cherish nonetheless because of their personal significance to you?

Absolutely. That's the role they fulfill, for most. Easier to pack than plaques and photo frames, that's for sure. I know several folks that substitute a line of coins for an "I Love Me!" wall that tracks their entire career, unit to unit. By all means, get him a coin.

[Iraq Ninja]

There are two kinds of Challenge Coins-

1. Those used by the Rangers
2. Those used by everyone else

:)

The current coin craze has little to do with tradition. A few units like the Rangers keep the tradition alive and have a history of using the coins. Hell, I used to carry my coin in my soap dish so I wouldn't get coin checked in the shower. Coins work well with the Ranger mentality and tradition and I don't know any other kind of unit that has as much history and espirt de corps surrounding the use of them.

The SF guys in my era were not too bothered with coins, and tended to concentrate on getting something a bit more useful, like a Rolex.

From what I remember, the tradition is said to date back to a certain aviation unit in WW1, and was popular with the airborne troops in WW2.


The Army wants everyone to feel special these days.:

http://www.coinforce.com/images/portfolio/army-dentalcorp-1_200x200.jpg

The disease of Coinotis has even spread through the Government.

Oh, and they even have a coin now for the Ft. Hood shooting...

[Army Chief]

http://www.coinforce.com/images/portfolio/army-dentalcorp-1_200x200.jpg


Nice. Slightly OT, but why is it that the farther you get from units where the fighting is actually done, the harder everyone seems to be trying to project a tough-guy/we-belong-too demeanor? It's more than a little ridiculous.

AC

[120mm]

Do you have any coins yourself that you cherish nonetheless because of their personal significance to you?

I used to value the uniqueness and rarity of actually having a coin.

I appreciated the fact that only a few folks had certain coins.

Passing out coins willy nilly, or even buying them kind of ruins the entire experience, imo.

I have a 2 ACR coin from CSM Gene McKinney. At the time I thought it was pretty cool, but not everyone had one, either.

Coins have become as special as last place ribbons at the Special Olympics.

[Bill Bryant]

I used to value the uniqueness and rarity of actually having a coin.

Coins have become as special as last place ribbons at the Special Olympics.So did you throw away the coin your dad gave you at MCRD Graduation?

[C4IGrant]

I have some coins from the NAV, but got even more from the USAF (as a Civy)! Go figure that one out.

IMHO, the challenge coin thing is dead. Cool to collect, but that is about it (and one should never buy one).




C4

[RogerinTPA]

I haven't seen or heard of anyone coining anyone in a couple of decades on the Army side of the house. A few SF friends of my father (Vietnam era) showed them to me back in the late 70s and they were pretty unique, but just for getting free drinks. Same in my era, but pretty much every branch of service had their own coin, as well as Divisions, Brigades and the like. My most cherished ones were from some of the units I was assigned to, 3 of them pure sterling silver.