rlfj: Blog

I just received a very interesting question from a reader:

Here's a vaguely related question that you might have come across the answer to -- who, if anyone, sets standards for which departments have captains and which only have sergeants? Or equivalently, what's a sergeant's responsibility and what needs a lieutenant? I assume that each department makes its own decisions, but there seems to be more consistency to it than I would expect without some agreed-to criteria. If you don't know, who would you ask?

My response:

The one thing I learned was that police departments vary incredibly. Each department has the legal right to set itself up as needed. There are no national standards. Everything is a state standard, sometimes superseded by local municipalities.

Matucket has 196 total officers. There are three ranks - patrolman, senior patrolman, and sergeant - and then lieutenant, captain, and chief. The LAPD currently has about 8,800 officers, 3 types of police officer (patrolman/senior patrolman in Matucket), 2 types of sergeant, 3 types of detective, 2 types of lieutenant, 3 types of captain, and then 4 more upper ranks!

Who does what? In terms of routine duties, sergeants run things. Command types run departments, deal with policy, reporters, and budgets. Forget what you see on television and movies. Lieutenants and captains and police commissioners are not going out and solving crimes and arresting people. That is done by patrol and detectives with a sergeant supervising.

I hope this helps.

As for the latest chapter, it’s time for a little excitement in Grim’s life. Just like soldiers hate excitement on the job, so do police officers. Enjoy!

Final comments on psych evals for police officers. I have heard from several police officers who said that even though state standards might not require them, their local force did very thorough testing. I also heard from some who said they either weren’t required or were limited to seeing if you were drooling and twitching. A real high-quality psych eval can cost thousands of dollars. Some forces have the money and some don’t. Everything I learned showed that some forces have them, some don’t, and that some jurisdictions require them and some don’t. I don’t think what I wrote about Grim needs to be modified. End of discussion.

Final comments on sending medals back. It looks like it isn’t terribly unusual. Here are three comments by readers. This will be the end of the medals controversy.

“Don't listen to all the people who complain about sending back medals. I did throw mine away when I was discharged following the Vietnam disaster. My daughter did the same when her husband was killed in Afghanistan. Some people think that those medals are important, on the other hand they remind you of what went wrong so often.”

“Just want to add my two cents on the metals. Being a vet and working with other vets I think your readers would be surprised at how many don't want the medals that they have earned, thinking, like Grim, that they didn't do enough to save their brothers or sisters. I just got out of a VA Hospital after eight months of fighting cancer. Before going in, I worked with a lot of our new vets after they got home and even more while I was in there. Almost everyone would tell you the same thing I'm telling you. The only ones that want the I-Been-There medals are the ones that have never been there and thought they wanted to or the REMF. I have seen many medals just thrown in the trash, sent to their fallen brother's family saying that they didn't earn them because their son didn't make it home, and, yes, sent to the DOD.”

“On the blog entry about medals, many of my friends during the 60s and 70s sent theirs back. Never asked if they didn't have a return address. I know one CMH winner that won't claim the benefits – no taxes, free car registrations, etc. Grim's actions are highly consistent with his frame of mind.”

Lots of controversy about Grim sending his medals back. A number of people figured he’s gone too far this time. Maybe yes, maybe no. This is not an unheard of thing. Some soldiers send them back as a form of protest. This happened in several cases when Carter gave a blanket pardon to draft resisters following the Vietnam War. There have been other instances as well. One reader commented that various Army regulations require Grim to keep uniforms available until his Individual Ready Reserve service is complete. I suspect that probably wouldn’t be prosecuted all that vigorously. At least two readers commented that somebody at the Pentagon would be able to track down whoever returned medals by way of return addressing (required by the Post Office, can be falsified), inscriptions on the medals (which may or may not be present), or reading the postmark and figuring out who had all those medals from Matucket. That might well be true, but I would simply ask…why? I can’t imagine, even in a bureaucratic institution as large as the military, that somebody is waiting around to track down and return medals.

I am simply going to say that Grim is a bit messed up about his service. Several readers wrote that you wear the medals not for yourself, but for the ones who can’t, and I think I have mentioned that in earlier sections. On the other hand, Grim considers his service to be a failure to the ones who can’t, rightly or wrongly. Keep reading. There is more to come.

On a totally separate and considerably more amusing note, I put The Grim Reaper on my wife’s Kindle for her to read. When she got to Chapter 29 she asked me why all the female leads in my stories end up going to jail. I told her that I was attracted to the flawed kind of women who spent time behind bars, at which point she kicked me out of the house and sent me to work.

I have had a huge number of readers asking why Grim hasn’t received an Medal of Honor for his actions at Outpost Whiskey. I do not plan to discuss whether or not Grim will or won’t get the MOH, but it is important to understand the process in receiving awards and decorations. They don’t just hand this stuff out! The lower the level of the award, the lower the level of upper management needed to hand it out. This is NOT a comment on the relative importance of various awards and decorations. If I had served, it is doubtful I would have earned a Good Conduct Medal! It is simply a discussion of the procedure.

Lower-level awards, such as the Achievement Medal and Commendation Medal, are usually authorized at a battalion level, though usually somebody higher up has to rubber stamp things. The next level up would be Bronze Stars and Silver Stars, which usually require authorization at the brigade or division level, and take longer, weeks or months. When you get up to the Distinguished Service Cross or Medal of Honor levels, it has to go to the Pentagon, and usually higher. Criteria are extremely stringent, and the process can take 18-24 months, or more.

So, while Outpost Whiskey might or might not result in higher awards we need to be realistic! The battle occurred in June 2007. As of Chapter 51, it is still December 2007. The absolutely earliest date Grim might get the highest level awards would be sometime in 2009, or perhaps later. For those of you looking for big medals, you are just going to have to wait a little longer!

There’s a flip side to everything, and Chapter 51 is the flip side to Chapter 50. It’s not a happy chapter. Sorry about that.