The promotions and the medals you hand over to your crew are linked with the renown you accumulate per patrol. Check this thread
http://www.communitymanuals.com/shii...#Crew_Promotin
If you don't like to be restricted by the SH3 renown-promotion system use SH3Cmd. With this program you can give as many promotions and medals and qualifications you like to your crew. The only thing you cannot do is to promote yourself or give medals to yourself. You can get the Cmd from here
http://www.users.on.net/~jscones/software/products.html and make sure you read the FAQ and the readme files.