The Distinctive Significance Of Military Challenge Coins To Company Members.

Members of the armed forces comprise a unique and specialized group of individuals all dedicated to the same task. Their shared rigorous training and experiences help them form a solid bond. This shared cohesiveness is important for them to work together as a team despite the challenges of terrain, other forces and technological interruptions. A relatively new way they are showing this team spirit is through military challenge coins.

Individuals entering the military all go through a very similar training regimen, regardless of what their ultimate specific job will be. This lays a standard of behavior, understanding and culture of norms. The constant reminders of the reality of what the military is designed to do is always with each member, and the risks, though usually not spoken are well understood by all. In such a community, a closeness of kinship is, though not automatic, highly prevalent, and emblems help patch over the distinctions of life before the military and create an innate equality of heart.

While hobbyists and collectors amass different symbols to reflect this love for an experience or document their participation in a series of like events, military members have few objects they can keep from each position they serve as mementos of memories and shared experiences. A relatively recent trend, in military history terms, is the collection of metal orbs with unit emblems stamped on them from each place of work.

One can accumulate a large number of them simply by getting one from each unit of assignment. Our military men and women move frequently and change assignments on a regular basis; a way of broadening the experience and depth of knowledge in each individual. When one includes all the permanent and temporary assignments in a career, an impressive display of these orbs is amassed.

When they began to catch on and become poplar, they were almost exclusively minted for the organization, a new common rallying standard for inter unit rivalries. As they became more common and popular, they began to appear in other formats. Some were presented for major, joint staff sanctioned military exercises, for special service at a command level, and others for excellence demonstrated during inspections.

With the proliferation of these coins some unique rules that accompany their distribution and handling have surfaces. As with fraternities in college, the military is rife with behavioral norms that are akin to fraternity initiations, without all the sophomoric parts. While these traditions are expected norms, there is little in the way of formal requirements or enforcement, just friendly strife.

First, each individual should be carrying the coin that bears the image of his current unit, not base x, the previous station. The individual should be carrying tit with him ion his person at all times. The coin is to be respected, it must never be dropped, as doing so places the bearer in the position of having to buy a round of drinks for all who observed the misdemeanor.

When the commander is finished delineating the heroics of the recipient, the recipient faces the commander, salutes, and the two shake hands. The coin is in the shaking hand and possession of the coin is transferred. It is not as simple as one might imagine, and there is a very real possibility of dropping it, embarrassing both. Possibly to ensure great care is taken to avoid this, there is a consequence to dropping military challenge coins, you have to buy a round of drinks.

Get inside information on the very special significance of Military Challenge Coins now in our guide to all you need to know about unit coins .