Meihomei's Bronze Star of Readiness
Medal
A medal and a unit citation issued every three months to the most efficient, prepared unit in the armed forces.Every three months a different unit is chosen to receive the award, otherwise known as the Battle-B, especially among the navy and land forces, where the unit receiving it paints a bronze "B" on their base/ship, in letters no less than 5m tall.
Occurences
Space and special forces have yet to receive the award. 0051st Imperial Kagomine Skycutter Squadron "Arnd Surfers" are the single FlyForce unit to have received the award, but they did so twice, requiring an edict to bypass the normal requirement that it not be granted to a unit whose commanders received a Merit of Honour, nor who received, as a unit, the Bronze Star in the last 12 months. Meihomei's Own, a Navy sub-squadron sized unit, received the most awards with eighteen.
A common complaint against the award is that it is granted much more often to units directly observed by Meihomei(i.e. those in the Megamisama area) with more remote units having a harder time finding recogniction. Recent attacks on the Megamisama area have given weight to the counter argument that readiness that is tested in battle is more valuable, and have effectively deferred any reforms of the award for the foreseeable future.
Importance
Because it has a set frequency, it is often considered one of the least important awards, especially by the general public. However, a force member who wins it often is granted a number of half-stripes towards promotion that is neither negligible nor considered by those civilians.
Because it is a unit award, it is also considered crucial to unit morale, building on the idea that the unit wins together, or loses individually. Any unit with more than one award wears it proudly on their unit blason, Meihomei's Own, having 18, had three Starred-Bs, standing for five awards each, plus three regular Bs, to simplify blason design, added, as the unit Merits of Honour, considered much more prestigious, but also much larger on a blason, left them with little room to work on their already busy heraldic device.
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