and the subject of the Medal of Honor was brought up.
One of them said "I certainly don't want that mill stone around my neck."
I was a new soldier at the time so I kept quiet and listened for a change. It was an interesting conversation. The general consensus seemed to be they liked their career as it was and liked being under the radar. A couple of them said that if the medal was forced upon them they'd get out as quickly as they could. Others said they were too close to retiremment to get out and they'd just have to weather it out.
"Can you imagine the pressure put on you to live up to everyone's expectations?" someone asked.
He was answered with a "No $hit!"
The subject went on a bit as an E-7 with the face of an infantryman that had seen too much brought up the subject of a couple of medal awardees that had fared poorly in the civilian world, including a man shot during a robbery he committed. I later found out the E-7 had been a temporary captain during the Vietnam war and had later been reduced to the enlisted ranks. I later asked him about it and he said he only accepted the commission with the provision that if he was RIFed he'd go back to the enlisted grades.
I also later found out his battery commander often asked him for advice. He was an interesting man. He also opined that there should be a decent pension to go along with the medal to keep the awardee to be able to stay out of trouble. (It was $100/month at the time. It's $1489.37 now. Prior to 1961 it was $10)
Of course he medal has served to jump start lagging careers but to consensus of the NCOs discussion is that being awarded it would mean their lives and careers would never be the same.
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