Mercenary medals

[RandyT0001]

I was reading this post: http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/Trav/CotI/Discuss/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=001310;p=2 and had a thought (yeah, I know that scares a lot of you).
Do your mercenary companies have medals like the MCUF, MCG, SEH and PH of Imperial fame? Or do the mercenary troops work solely for money? If Hortalez et Cie had medal review boards, merc companies could forward their medal candidates to them which determines the medal awarded. If the trooper had several awards from Hortalez for bravery them his 'stock' goes up and he can get higher pay or a bonus. It could be helpful when the trooper leaves one merc company and joins another. Medals similar to the MCUF, etc could be earned but would have a different name. Does the merc company itself hand out medals without dealing with Hortalez?

Thought, comments, suggestions?

 

[kaladorn]

Nope. Nations hand out medals. (IMTU)

Medals are what happens when:
1) You've gotten yourself into a bad situation and you manage to get yourself out
2) Somebody with pull has seen you to do so

Plenty of times #1 is true, but #2 is not.

Mercs know medals are just a 'thanks for coming out' thing. They'd rather have a pay bonus. Which, if their superiors are smart, they might give them. But also remember that medals often come from incredibly brutal fights, heroism against all odds, standing up when all around you have given up the ghost. This is great for a national army. Frankly, it sucks for mercs. If the going gets tough, the merc gets repatriated to fight again another day. Last stands, brutally expensive defenses or attacks... these destroy a functioning mercenary force. So you don't give someone with that kind of inclination a medal.

In the Mercenary world, what gets you bonuses?

Professionalism - Do your job, follow orders, to it fast, sharp, and with minimum risk to life and limb of fellow professionals. If risks have to be taken, try to arrange for the 'locals' to take them. If damage has to be absorbed (to men or machines), ditto. Do what you have to do to satisfy the contract with optimal cost efficiency. If the situation gets bad enough, surrender. Get repatriated. Live to fight another day. Preferably, bug out and save your kit first if you can.

If you do your job well and carefully, your force makes a better profit margin. If you constantly write-off grav tanks with heroics (even if you survive), you're killing the net margins. That doesn't make your units CFO happy with you. Do that enough, you'll get dismissed regardless of how good of a soldier you are.

You fight for PAY. You don't fight for a CAUSE. You want to honour your contract, win the fights, but mostly, you want to live and have the budget and opportunity to fight another day. That's called making a living.

That's why I don't think medals matter. Medals are great for putting on the ritz for the media. You might grant them (along with the pay bonus) as an indicator visually, but it would be more likely to have good reviews in your annual PERs. The kind of people medals impress might be clients (you can bet the CO and XO and CFO and your legal council all wear their medals to meetings with prospective clients and amp up the unit's resume), not other mercs. And getting a medal for 'cost effective use of manpower and equipment resources' just isn't as impressive sounding as the 'Starburst For Extreme Heroism'.

 

[veltyen]

If you cant eat it, drink it, shag it or inject it what good is it. Unless the medal has a high resale value there isn't a whole lot of reason to hand them out.

IMTU this isn't nessersarily the case. Some of the larger mega-corp security forces are theoretically mercenary forces that are partially outsourced. Some of these are large enough to warrant cross sector (and in some cases cross imperium - think pinkertons) recognition, at which point they are basically standing armies in their own right.

The other common bonus apart from straight cash for meritorious conduct is the split bonus. This is a cash bonus that can be redeemed as cash, or the parent company will double it for the purchase of "personal military equipment". Flashy pistols and rifles, better comms gear, emergency medical supplies and advanced training courses, things of that sort.

The highest bonus tends to be large blocks of leave with pay.

A highly decorated marine will have a chest full of medals. A highly decorated merc will be covered in masterwork pistols, have a tailored drug injector and a large extremely shiny knife. Both are obvious displays, but in slightly different fashions.

 

[Vargas]

Taking a page from modern corporate culture, it might also be possible to get a letter of appreciation filed in your jacket. This might be for things which don't warrent a bonus but you still did good in someone's eyes and it reflects well on your resume when you decide to move on to another unit. (And maybe you can negotiate better pay, benefits, rank or the like because of it).

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Originally posted by veltyen:
If you cant eat it, drink it, shag it or inject it what good is it. Unless the medal has a high resale value there isn't a whole lot of reason to hand them out.

_________________________________________________
A highly decorated marine will have a chest full of medals. A highly decorated merc will be covered in masterwork pistols, have a tailored drug injector and a large extremely shiny knife. Both are obvious displays, but in slightly different fashions.

IMTU my Mercs are able to earn 3 medals.

MSA= Meritorious Service Award. (Refered to by certain members of the Mercs as a "massa" medal)

Given for surviving 4 years of service while performing his duties without bieng written up more than once a year. It comes with a cash bounus of up to 1 years pay.

HUF= Heroism Under Fire. (called naturally the "Huff")

Given for saving the lives or property of members of the Mrecenary Corps during a combat engagement.
This comes with a bounus of 1 months pay and 1 months leave.

WDC= Wounded During Combat (Called "Woody")

Given to members who are wounded during missions.
This comes with bounuses according to the severity of the wounds from 10 CR. for getting a cut to 50,000 CR. for loosing a limb.

All awards may be recieved multiple times and a silver star is placed on the medal for each award.

This gives the men something to work toward as well as recognition from others serving with them that there is something special about these fellow soldiers.

They may be working for money and not a cause (unless they choose to make their ticket a cause) but, they are highly motivated to get more than three hots and a cot out of their time in service.

They will not get a chest full of medals but, they are just as proud of earning these three as they would be of earning anything from the Imperium (except perhaps winning Nobel status).

 

[BetterThanLife]

I would think that Merc units wouldn't hand out medals with any significance except within the Merc Unit. (And that people looking at such medals would generally take them with a grain of salt. However if the client is a government then the government might award medals to Mercs in their service that would have significance. After all US soldiers do earn foreign decorations, and US decorations are awarded to foreign soldiers.

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by Vargas:
Taking a page from modern corporate culture, it might also be possible to get a letter of appreciation filed in your jacket. This might be for things which don't warrent a bonus but you still did good in someone's eyes and it reflects well on your resume when you decide to move on to another unit. (And maybe you can negotiate better pay, benefits, rank or the like because of it).

That's what I meant when I referred to your PERs (Personel Evaluation Reports). I think this is a very likely outcome actually.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Question:
Is the Foriegn Liegion considered a "Mercenary" unit or is it part of the French army?

 

[Fritz_Brown]

cweiskircher,
I would think the Woody would not be a highly prized medal. See kaladorn's post.

I would think that Bhoins and kaladorn have it right, for the most part. I would think there might be some form of standardized recognition within some merc organization (the bond writers, something akin to a VFW, the Imperium's version of Soldier of Fortune, etc.). It would allow for some comparison of how different units accomplished their tickets.

 

[Piper]

Originally posted by cweiskircher:
Question:
Is the Foriegn Liegion considered a "Mercenary" unit or is it part of the French army?

Yes and no. While the legion recruits foreigners who presumably serve primarily for pay rather than patriotism, the Legion operates within the structure of the French military. This would be different in a "commercial" mercenary organization which functioned on a contract basis.
The idea of governments awarding unit citations is certainly valid. As for individual mercenary unit commanders? Maybe. David Drake has "written the book" on sci-fi mercenaries. I can't say that I could picture Alois Hammer handing out an MCUF, but some of the other units might.
Would a medal mean much to the individual mercenary? Again, maybe. Companies frequently recognize employee merit in some form: "This parking space reserved for employee of the month". I could see some form of merit award as being useful, even if only a cash bonus. This would be most likely in established units that retained their people over a series of tickets rather than an ad hoc unit put together at the last minute.

edit (afterthought): If the mercenary unit issues dress uniforms, they would probably have at least some form of campaign ribbons and service awards.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

"The French Foreign Legion is a military formation of approximately 8500 men serving as a branch of the regular Armed Forces of France. It differs from other military units by accepting foreigners from any country in the world into its ranks."

http://www.foreignlegionlife.com/chapter1.htm#whatisffl

 

[Ran Targas]

Brands ... tattoos ... piercings ... painted armor ... superior weapons ... trophies ... these are the things that a mercenary unit would use to differentiate the veterans from the rookies.

Medals would mean nothing unless they were taken from the chest of a fallen enemy.

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by Andrew Boulton:
"The French Foreign Legion is a military formation of approximately 8500 men serving as a branch of the regular Armed Forces of France. It differs from other military units by accepting foreigners from any country in the world into its ranks."

The legends of the FFL aren't all true.
1) Officers tend to be mostly French graduates of St. Cyr. You probably get some CFRs, but not many.
2) Your past does matter. You probably get at least minimal checks before being allowed in now. Sure, you can probably avoid minor troubles in other places, but big ones? I don't know about that.
3) Sometimes the Legion used to be used as an alternative to jail for some folks and some legionaires were there for mandatory service. Desertion has always been a big problem.

They are mercenary in how they operate (soldiers who soldier for pay) but they are deployed under French command and on missions that matter enough to France to send someone, if not their regulars.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Excellent answers all, thanks

You are truly a great group of knowledgable people. That is why I ask my questions here on the boards.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

And then I considered that these Mercenaries will be world hopping and only the recognitions and awards they take with them will have any meaning to them.

 

[ChaserCaffey]

Most mercenary commands will probably not hand out medals, for the reasons given above. Doing well will probably result in cash bonuses, extra leave, a letter of commendation, or a promotion (and higher pay).

That said, a career merc might still have a chestful of medals to show off, if his outfit issues dress uniforms. While I don't see mercs giving out medals, campaign ribbons are another story, and I can see a certain type of outfit designing a "campaign honor" for themselves after a particularly long or tough ticket in order to set the unit members who were there apart from those who weren't. (This is as opposed to the other type of merc unit, who would accomplish the same task by getting matching tattoos. It's really all a matter of style.) Also, there could be any number of medals handed out by the grateful government of (X) for services rendered to the State. (You remember, the one you helped establish when you knocked over the old boss?)

Then again, someone *did* mention taking medals off of dead enemies, which has a certain amount of class, for very limited and merc-like defintiions of class.

 

[bryan gibson]

For what its worth, there's something else your'e missing:

Repute.

Medals are awarded for bravery under fire, courageous action and all that, and while a mercs motivations aren't the same as a regular soldier as Kaladorn has pointed out, he has seriously missed the mark on one respect - niether are they accountants. They are professional soldiers.

The only movies - an easy reference for all- that I have seen that really reflects this ( in my experience, there are likely others out there, but these are the merc movies I have seen)are Dogs of War, Proof of Life and The Wild Geese.

Niether of the lead soldiers in those units have medals, papers of merit or such, but they all had within their community reputations that were the key to their interactions.

Repute would be the merc version of the side effect of medals, which when all is said and done are really no more than a tangible way of marking accomplishment. Mercs don't use this; their resumes don't say " and earned the croi de guerre" but their "street cred" is another matter entirely. A merc who is known for success, stands by his teammates, pulls it out of the fire to gets his people home - all the sort of things that medals are awarded for( here I think Kaladorn was dead on, cynically speaking medals are a function of bad situations pulled off gracefully, though thats too simplistic) and which build reputations, these are the things to consider instead of medals..

Perhaps enumerating reputation within the community...reputation IS word of mouth, and in an action where a merc displays that special somthing that would elsewhere get a medal, his mates who saw would talk about it...

" yeah, I was with that guy on Algol
VI, in glimmerdrift...badbad bush, and the brutes were bustin us hard with 7mm, tracers everyhwere, gauss needles like damn flies!

His buddy nods..." yep, we were pinned by a really ugly VRF sump, bunkered in..we were boned, but Saunders got up there, blew it with a satchel, and then all you hear is pills poppin ( gunfire, or expending caseless ammo [pill]) and he pops his head out and yells " who's buyin the beer?" we'd a been farmers (dead) for sure if he hadn't got that thing knocked out!"

The first nods at this.

" aye...I'll serve wi' him anytime!"

What entirely too many people tend to miss is that mercs are niether souless money grubbing grunts, nor are they regular soldiers. They are motivated differently, but history has shown thenm to be both effective as well as just awful, depending on who and what unit- they are as diverse as any military unit. But, and again, Dave Drake has hit the mark, The Slammers rely onrepute for their real operational tender, as it were.

Imagine...who would you hire...a regular guy with a megacorp security resume? a list of medals from the Imp Marines ( a brave man to be sure) with sterling fitness reposrts and a resume of recommendations? Just great if you wanted a garrison commander, or a body guard...but say you wanted a team of real hardasses to retrieve an item, or grab the kidnapped daughter of one of your execs being held for ransom...and the man in front of your desk pulls himself up in that certain way, drops a card on your desk and says " nossir...I don't have medals. I'm Dorsai"?

I know who I'd want...and thats what repute brings. Thats a currency no medal can compare to in the merc world.

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by kaladorn:
The legends of the FFL aren't all true.

Also see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legion
for a decent intro article.

Aside from making a good story some of it may come from other similar units that were more penal units. I don't have a reference handy but they often served in the same locations and there was a sort of migration path. Also the Legion has changed with the times, their campaigns, and governments.

Spain has a Foreign Legion as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Foreign_Legion

ObTrav: Does/could the 3I/OTU have something like a Foreign Legion? Maybe IFL sounds better in Vland.

The size of the 3I would make it impossible for just one unit unless it was very large and divided into at least Domain if not Sector based units. Or just a unit based in the most likely place, for example the Rim during the Rim War, Spinward Marches later on? Really this is a separate thread tho if anyone wants to run with it.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by cweiskircher:
Question:
Is the Foriegn Liegion considered a "Mercenary" unit or is it part of the French army?

From what I understand it is part of the French Army but comprised of Mercenaries. SO it is really neither one nor the other.

 

[BetterThanLife]

One key point. And this goes against the grain about Mercenary handing out medals. Mercenary units will recognize soldiers who do well. They will probably also have dress uniforms. (At least the good ones will.) It helps to establish Esprit du Corps. It makes a soldier feel like they accomplished something. My earlier comments definitely will hold though. Medals that are internal to a Mercenary unit will not be taken seriously by people outside that unit. However within the unit. An award like the Spitting Kitty, (See John Ringo's Crown of Slaves in the HH Universe.) will be significant to those that do serve within the unit.

Dress Uniforms are part of the unit history and tradition. A Military unit without History and Tradition isn't a military unit it is an armed mob. (And will behave as such.)