History Main / ChestOfMedals

# An officer who has so many medals nailed to their uniform that one would expect them to be a ranking general-grade officer, but they turn out to be only a field- or junior-grade officer. And yes, they earned them all ''the hard way'', fighting for their country. In other words, someone who is ColonelBadass / MajorlyAwesome / TheCaptain that refuses to be promoted off the field, and has the medals as proof of their numerous heroic, badass achievements in combat.

** In the 1970s and 1980s, Soviet leader UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev was the punchline of countless [[RussianHumour Soviet jokes]] ridiculing his love for medals, due to him being perhaps the [[MilesGloriosus most notorious Type 3 in the Soviet Union]]. He even awarded himself with the Order of Victory that was only given to the greatest WWII military leaders,[[note]]That's a platinum star covered with diamonds and five TreasureIsBiggerInFiction sized rubies which, by law, was only to be awarded for strategic scale critical victories. It was awarded -- legitimately -- only 19 times, 14 of those times to Soviet figures (Zhukov, Vasilevski, and Stalin himself were given two awards of the medal) and 5 times to other Allied generals (specifically Montgomery, Eisenhower, King Michael I of Romania -- he was the last living recipient, dying in 2017 --, Michał Rola-Żymierski, and Josip Broz Tito). All of these awards occurred in the summer and early fall of 1945. Brezhnev awarded himself the Order, making the number of awards an even 20, in 1978.[[/note]] despite his own modest WWII record.[[note]]Despite demonstrating genuine bravery, he served the whole war as a PoliticalOfficer, not a field commander, and was discharged at the end of the war as a Major General, certainly not entitled to such a lofty award.[[/note]] Like Georgy Zhukov, he had four Hero of the Soviet Union stars and a star of the Hero of Socialist Labour, as well as dozens upon dozens of other decorations that he, to put it mildly, [[BlingOfWar didn't entirely deserve and wore very prominently]]. After he died, [[ObviousRulePatch the rules were changed so you couldn't get awards for things like birthdays]], and his Order of Victory was specially posthumously revoked from him. In spite of all this, he's still well-regarded today. Some of the jokes include:

** Reichsmarschall Göring embraced this trope, though. While he did earn a few Iron Crosses and the very prestiguous ''Pour le Mérite'' during the First World War, his later medals had little to no merit behind them and like many tinpot dictators were simply acknowledgments of his powerful position as Hitler's official NumberTwo. Much like Leonid Brezhnev, the Reichsmarschall eventually became the butt of many jokes about this.

* In ''{{WesternAnimation/MASK}}'', Miles Mayhem is usually shown in military uniform with either an impressive-looking ribbon or a row of medals. Although he did serve in the military before becoming a TerroristWithoutACause, the letters page in the UK comic once claimed that he stole the medals, making him a type 4.

* A variant shows up in ''WesternAnimation/{{Animalympics}}'' with swimming champ Mark Spritz, a veteran athlete who wears a vast number of ''Olympic''-style gold medals around his neck. Based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Spitz a real person,]] incidentally.

* The typical [[TheGeneralissimo caudillo]] of a BananaRepublic does this. One of the most famous examples in Latin America is Porfirio Díaz, the authoritarian PresidentForLife of Mexico prior to UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution, wore his medals very often, and sometimes combined it with an [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Porfirio_diaz.jpg/1200px-Porfirio_diaz.jpg equally fancy]] nice hat. He's possibly the inspiration for the term 'Mexican General.'

** Interestingly, despite building a CultOfPersonality and plastering his picture everywhere, this was actually avoided by UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, who only wore the Iron Cross and Wound Badge he received in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* A non-military variant in ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}''. Russell the [[ScoutOut Wilderness Explorer]] has wears a sash coated front and back with merit badges.

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** Subverted by UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, who only wore the Iron Cross and Wound Badge he received in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

->''"New portraits of [[UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev Brezhnev]] have appeared. He didn't spare himself when it came to medals. So many gold stars! There is no room on his chest. He is ruining his own prestige, in my opinion, with all his pomp."''
-->-- '''Vyacheslav Molotov'''

* Subverted by UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, who only wore the Iron Cross and Wound Badge he received in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.