48 hours of blunders introduction: the coining [NFP]

Back up to four days before the events of the two days that constitute the 48 hours in question. Now it's October 4th. A sunny day (not unusual) in autumn (quite usual) on which the Commander of ISAF and hero of Iraq, General David Petraeus, was supposed to visit for an hour (a unique experience). During combat operations it is fairly common for a General of his stature to make visits to outlying bases, but we're so far out of the loop and off the beaten path, especially up here in RC-North, that it seemed unlikely he'd make it out. We get this all the time: "be ready to brief General such-and-such on your area, he's coming today." "Are you ready to brief yet? He's coming soon!" "Hey, let me hear your pre-brief. Cause General such-and-such is definitely coming." "He canceled. Brief's off." In this case, though, General Petraeus followed through, and came out to receive the Battalion's brief.

Normally I wouldn't care much about this, nor would I have an opportunity to exploit the visit. On this occasion, however, our Sergeant Major correctly decided that it would be cool to have General Petraeus pin my 1SG with the purple heart he received from the suicide bomber incident from August. I was told to come along for the presentation, as his commander, and I did. At this moment, I realized what needed to be done, and although 1SG was not up to the task, I knew, deep down, that it needed to be done, and that I was the one to do it. I'm talking about laying a coin on General Petraeus.

The tradition of giving out coins probably goes back to the informal reward system that predated institutionally sanctioned measurements of success like ribbons, service commendations, and other official displays of recognition. There is only precedent and tradition to regulate the giving or receiving of coins, and it's all very vague. In fact, one can, generally speaking, reduce it to the following:
1) Only a Commander or his NCO equivalent is authorized to procure or give out coins.
2) Coins must be purchased with funds designated for coins, or with one's own personal money.
3) Coins normally exist only at Battalion level and above--recently, however, motivated or unified companies have taken it upon themselves to issue coins.
4) Coins are tied to some kind of achievement. One doesn't simply give them out--they are marks of recognition, given for a duty well done, an on-the-spot "good job" for something that doesn't quite merit an award.
5) During official functions, one must carry one's Battalion coin, and present it on call, or one is required to purchase a drink for the challenging party. This right to challenge, in theory, is not limited by any other considerations--in practice, one only ever challenges others of one's own rank or station.
6) Another type of coin challenge I've seen is that one carries the highest-ranking or most prestigious coin one has ever received. The challenge is issued, and whomever has the highest ranking coin wins the challenge. In theory, if the president had a coin, that would be the highest.
7) Coins are given by way of a firm handshake, appearing, as it were, almost by magic, out of the granting or awarding officer / NCO's very palm.
8) Coins are awarded by the higher-ranking officer or NCO to the lower-ranking officer or NCO, never the reverse.


I'm sure I'm forgetting something, there, and there are probably a host of other informal rules and regulations that vary from unit to unit, but almost everyone in the Army (maybe even the military) would be familiar with the rules I laid out above. The last rule, and for my purposes the most important, is just a further expression of the military's hierarchical structure--only the higher-ranking officer / NCO has the right to offer any type of feedback on a subordinate's job performance. As coins are given out for duty well executed, or for achievement, they can only go top-down, not bottom-up.

The way I was thinking about it, though, I figured: "General Petraeus and the rest of the Army talk about COIN being a Company Commander and Platoon Leader fight. If he and they really believe this, than it should be a great honor to receive a mark of favor from a subordinate who is actually in a position to evaluate performance--versus, say, the President, Congress, the American Public, or some other General." I made sure to have an extra coin on me, and promised myself that if I had the opportunity, I'd hook General Petraeus up, for working really hard on our behalf and getting things right. You can imagine my elation when, after my 1SG was pinned, everyone was getting set to take a couple of photos with the General, and the Sergeant Major (to his everlasting regret, I'm sure) saw me in the back of the room and said: "Sir! Get up here! You need to be in this!" then turned to General Petraeus and said: "The Company Commander, sir." At which General Petraeus said: "Oh! Of course! Get up here!" So up I got, there.

When I arrived at the front of the room, to the envious glares of the Battalion's staff, General Petraeus shook my hand, and gave me his coin--the best coin there is, frankly. Looked me in the eye, thanked me for my service. He was taller than I'd expected, but also a bit older. For some reason I expected him to be brimming with vigor, but there was a deeper, more muted sense of power and accomplishment about him. He was lean, very lean, and his eyes were hard. He blessed me, and my 1SG, we took a couple of photos together, and then he took his leave of us, first by shaking 1SG's hand. Then by shaking mine.

Of course, in the intervening moments I'd taken the opportunity to slip my own coin into my hand, so it was that when he was shaking my hand for the second time, I gave him, for efforts above and beyond the call of duty, an immediate on-the-spot performance review. In other words, the Gator Company deployment coin--fierce gator side up. He looked at it, surprised, then smiled and said: "Now Company Commanders are giving out coins?" To which I replied: "Thanks for coming out, sir." And that was that.