Quote Originally Posted by Schmedlap View Post
...I learned a while ago not to assume that if it is not worn then it was not obtained... the belief that "it's not what you've done; it's what you do."
There have always those who would wear anything they could hang on a uniform. Most wear what they're supposed to; many will do that only when it seems to be the right thing to do and otherwise wear nothing or a bare minimum (I did learn that not wearing one's paracaidista wings in the 82d was more trouble than it was worth. So much for reverse elitism... ).

I suspect some of those field grades at Leavenworth with no right arm patch haven't deployed to either theater, most through no fault of their own -- I'll also bet many of them have deployed and simply do not feel a need to advertise.

Had a good friend once upon a time who refused to wear a right arm patch on the rationale that he'd been in three good units and didn't want to slight any of them by wearing another patch. Know a guy with a CIB who didn't wear it because he didn't think he'd earned it. Know another guy with a DSC -- that's all he ever wore aside from his brass...

It is indeed all about what you do.

Today.