The armed forces of the United States offer individual and unit awards for good performance, valor in action, leadership, etc. They are usually equated to each other on a level. For example, in the US Navy:
- The Meritorious Unit Commendation is awarded to a unit (a ship, shore base, etc.) for actions on the same level as would qualify an individual navy service member for the Bronze Star award, the fourth-highest award for valor in action of the US military;
- The Navy Unit Commendation is equated to an individual order of the Silver Star medal, the third-highest award for valor in action;
- The Presidential Unit Citation, the highest unit award offered by the Navy, is equated to an individual order of the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest award for valor in action (the highest being the Medal of Honor).
Therefore, the news that the Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Washington has just been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation is more important than it might seem at first sight.
"The award of the Presidential Unit Citation to the USS Washington is a profound honor, signifying the crew's exceptional dedication and strategic impact,” said Vice Adm. Rob Gaucher, commander, Submarine Forces. “Their work in challenging, high risk environments completing vital national level missions demonstrates the key role our submarines play in ensuring maritime security and global stability."
The PUC is awarded to any U.S. military unit that has distinguished itself by outstanding performance and heroism in action against enemy forces and is the highest unit award in the Department of the Defense.
During Washington’s deployment, the submarine, also known as the Blackfish, completed three demanding missions vital to national security that resulted in obtaining sensitive and unique intelligence information, where it executed the Chief of Naval Operations' maritime strategy by supporting national security interests and maritime security operations.
. . .
Washington steamed more than 37,000 nautical miles with the crew supporting diplomatic relationships by conducting port visits in Faslane, Scotland, and Grotsund, Norway. In recognition of the Blackfish’s exceptional service and dedication during operations in the strategic Arctic region, the Washington was awarded the newly announced Arctic Service Medal.
There's more at the link.
We don't know what the Washington did while on patrol, but it was sufficiently important and valuable to earn her the highest unit award the Navy has to offer, and also what may be the first ever award of the newly-created Arctic Service Medal. Her crew will, of course, wear individual emblems signifying those awards on their uniforms. What's more, this mission or missions took place during peacetime, not wartime, so the awards are doubly unusual.
Hmmm . . . Arctic service . . . heroism in action as an award criterion . . . one wonders what they were up to! Veterans and well-informed observers can probably come up with some interesting possibilities.
Peter
Blowing up Nord Stream perhaps?
ReplyDeleteThat was my thought
DeleteMaybe some frogmen were frogging around a long cylindrical pipe looking thing and some munition detonated..Good thing they they were able to return to the launch vehicle and resume their training.They are the best..In the North Sea.
ReplyDeleteIn today's woke military, were they bringing the correct pronouns to polar bears?
ReplyDeletenordstream?
ReplyDeleteWe don't need to know. That way the left have less to leak.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some frogmen were training doing frogmen stuff when an explosion occurred near a pipeline,near Norway,,sorta.Having the most highly skilled operations units,I can rest assured personnel returned safely.
ReplyDeleteIt's very unlikely to have been the Nordstream pipeline bombing. That's not in the Arctic, and it happened a couple of years ago. I suspect it might be something interesting involving Russian boomers in the White Sea, or operations near Murmansk, both of which are vital naval areas. Either way (or anything else), we aren't likely to be told.
ReplyDeletePeter that assumes (and we both know how that breaks down) that the secret operation location information has anything to do with the release.
DeleteThat a Nuclear Submarine well equipped for long distance, long duration missions AND being a home ship for navy seals can do a lot of "interesting things".
Well, there's always the "We'll blow up our highly profitable and politically powerful gas lines just because we're drunken Russians" nonsense. Or the ever-popular their stupid Russians and they failed to do Maintenace on the lines (Disregarding the importance of it to Russia AND that Russia has DECADES of quietly successful work on underwater lines).
Or we could ask Cui Bono and ask just how profitable to AMERICAN Natural Gas Shippers to replace at a near triple price that cheap Russian Natty Gas.
Oh, and BTW make Germany and Europe even more dependent upon America.
What did Kissinger say about the risks of being America's ally?
I'm puzzled. Searched all over the interwebz, and could only find a USN Arctic Service /Ribbon/ - it is identical to the USCG's Arctic Service Medal. Will both services be using an identical award?
ReplyDeleteFollow the link I provided in the text. The Arctic Service Medal is a new award, announced earlier this year.
DeletePurest speculation, likely chasing Russian subs who were planting devices, and either mapping, collecting, disabling, or altering said devices. Or for that matter, planting US intel collection devices. I'd estimate it comes out in 20 years or so, in a presidential biography or some such nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of Hunter/Killer.
ReplyDeleteIce Station Zebra
ReplyDeleteRecall this Sub
ReplyDeletehttps://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/us-submarine-tapped-secret-r,ussian-underseas-communication-cable-180404
Or this one
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells
For what it's worth, the Citation should have been written differently, or not been made public. The people that do intelligence work in other countries are not stupid, eventually what the crew accomplished will be known. If what they did is made public, that will not be good. Then again, I understand OPSEC sometimes is lower priority than it should be due to political posturing.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe it was like the medals given out wholesale during the Vietnam war....
ReplyDeleteWe may never know whether the award was for actual action or just for show, but servicemen have a tough row to hoe regardless, so it's nice when they are shown some appreciation, even if it is completely irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteHaving served in submarines, I can attest that awards are not for show. Submariners tend to be less decorated than their surface counterparts. This article and Peter’s thoughts do illustrate why many submarine awards end up classified and only show up in a service record. Additionally, the bar of minimum performance is set higher due to needing to do more with far less crew, so submariners often are only given a single individual award at the end of a tour like a participation prize, despite having nailed a level of work that would have earned a surface guy many awards during the same time and workload. This comparison is evident for anyone who has served where submarine guys are used shoreside alongside folks from other branches and the submarine guys get relied on for accomplishing far more than is normal for someone of their rank or time. Personally, my unit achieved something significant that had never happened in the history of naval shipyards or submarines and we had to fight for years just to get a meritorious unit citation from big navy for it, because “that award is only given to units that stay longer than scheduled on a combat deployment.” So we made first ever naval history by multiple measures that big navy cares a lot about, but that is not good enough for a unit award in big navy’s eyes because we didn’t do the sort of thing that those awards are handed out to surface ships for on the regular. So I’m sure the one in the news must have done something incredible, but then publicizing the award only shows the declining opsec in today’s DEI and yes-man navy.
ReplyDeleteFast Attack (SSN) submarines don't go places we aren't supposed to go and don't do things the opposition thinks we can't... We weren't there, it never happened, and we were in a different place doing oceanographic research.
ReplyDeleteThat's my story for the USS Omaha and I'm sticking to it. Read Blind Man's Bluff for more information...
And, the stuff we didn't do got us two Meritorious Unit Citations for a single deployment.
ReplyDeleteAnother Ivy Bells or something along those lines?
ReplyDeleteThat technology has been around for decades at this point; this could be for it's modern equivalent or something similar.
DeleteHopefully the Russians don't figure it out for a long time.
Jonathan
Well, they were in the Arctic, maybe they were recruiting more seals.
ReplyDelete