We have a young private that just got out of basic/AIT and he said his drill sergeants said he was authorized to wear the GWOT Medal.  I was under the impression that this was not one of the medals issued during IET training.  Has this changed or have I always been wrong?  Here is what I found according to Wiki.

Operation Noble Eagle is the ongoing operation here at home.  If you are not deployed in OIF/OEF you are doing Noble Eagle.  Every one coming out of AIT these days has the GWOT Service/NDSM/ASR.

Thank you for clearing that up for me.

There are 3:

GWOT Service
National Defense Service
Army Service (Aka 'Gay Pride' 'cause it's a rainbow)

You get the GWOT-service Expeditionary if you are deployed...

I just graduated 19D OSUT last week and did not get the GWOT.  I was told that I would get it when I got to my unit.

I remember when I was counting down my days in Korea so I could get my Overseas Service Ribbon and have my second award, and was looking for an AAM so I could have a full row. Man, the pre-war Army.

I graduated a little over a year and a half ago I was told that I would not be given one but was authorized to wear one, i had to just go buy it myself.

Oh while were on the topic of whats authorized and whats not authorized, a SGT at my unit told me i should take my bayonet and grenade tabs off my expert badge because i haven't qualified with them in 6 months but I'm in the reserves and will NEVER get another chance to qualify with them so do I really have to take them off? The NCO said he didnt care that i had them but someone else might bitch me out whats the deal?

LMAO––-I was that way in Vicenza.  Now folks look like Russain Generals after 3 years in.

Surface Warfare School, in 1976, most of the instructors had several tours in the brown water Navy or on the gun line.  And thus had 2 or 3 rows.  One Lt (O-3 USN) came in with a single solitary National Defense.  And opened his first lecture with "As you can see I'm an Atlantic Fleet sailor."

Just because you haven't been given a chance to fail, doesn't mean you're still qualified.

I'd take them off.

Not necessarily on the part in red. It depends on where you are deployed. For Iraq and Afghanistan you now get their respective campaign medals, not the GWOTEM.

FDC, I went to a reception at the Army-Navy Club, which is normally a "everyone below O-3 stay the frak out" kind of place", for E/506 PIR. My cousin got me tickets, he being a retired O-6.

Wait, what really pissed me off was the dress code. Normally the dress code for the establishment is Class A's or coat and tie. Fair enough. I'm in A's and jump boots as befitted a sergeant in the 101st. The only other active duty guys I saw there in uniform was a small crew of officers from Walter Reed, and they were in ACUs that looked slept in. Jesus Christ in Heaven I was pissed the fuck off at that.

So one of the guys from Easy looks at me, sees my copy of Band of Brothers, smiles, and says "What can I do for you, Major?"

I figure his eyesight was going with age. "Sergeant, I'm a sergeant same as you are."

He laughs a little. "OK, colonel then."

I just look at him funny. "Oh, come on, look at you, you have more fruit salad than Eisenhower fer chrissake." Yeah, four rows plus one. The bottom three are just various I Was There ribbons for Korea, Kosovo, and Iraq twice.  But by WWII standards it's a huge pile.

But a friend of mine was hosting the panel discussion, and I ended up in the upstairs bar with everyone at the end. That was when the good war stories came out.

Moisin, no offense meant, but the Bayonet and Grenade dangles are window-dressing in the first place. The only ones anyone ever wears out in the active Army I've seen are Rifle or Pistol. Our CSM wouldn't even let the SAW gunners or M240B gunners wear the AUTO RIFLE or machine gun bars. Now I have seen some guys wear Carbine instead of Rifle since we do carry M4s and Clothing Sales always sells out of Rifle bars before a Class A inspection.

We got the GWOTEM when we came back in '04, but the regs have changed since I retired. Holy horseapples I thought I was all that and a bag of doritos when I  got the ASR and the NDSM back in the day.... circa. 88