Posted on Jan 23, 2014
What is the single most improperly worn ribbon?
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Every time I pick up a new issue of the Reservist magazine, I seem to see photos of people wearing the Armed Forces Reserve Medal (AFRM) improperly. It is probably the most complicated medal / ribbon in the military, but still, a Master Chief or Admiral should be able to wear it correctly. It is never worn without an attachment of some kind, so a naked ribbon immediately jumps out as just plain wrong. Are there other ribbons that rival the AFRM for improper wear?
Edited 8 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 113
I am going to double up on the NATO Medals. I received my first from Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995-1996. Got my second one in 2011-2012 in Afghanistan. First: wasn't aware that you can only wear ONE...and for the recod I think that's dumb. If you were in different campaigns with NATO, you should be able to wear them, but regs are regs. Second: You can only wear the FIRST one you were awarded. SO...even if I wanted to wear the Afghan Nato Medal, I couldn't because it was my second award. Even though it looks different with the silver stripes. I actually took a DA photo with them both on and thank goodness I showed it to my CSM for a "proof read."
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SGT(P) (Join to see)
Mine came with an ISAF attachment when it was presented to me. I've seen many wearing it despite it not being authorized for US personnel.
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LTC (Join to see)
Now that's odd. My SGM and the ref read that you can wear both. This calls for a thorough investigation.
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MAJ Raúl Rovira
We had a 42H HR E7 wearing both NATO medals. He was surprised when I showed him the reg on this. Also, often I see soldiers who only went to Afghanistan wearing the NATO medal for Former Yugoslavia.
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MSG David Rogers III
MAJ Raúl Rovira - They do this because they follow the wrong guidance.... the Military Clothing "Sales Clerk". Most of my Soldiers would reference them when wearing the wrong ribbons and badges. I talked to a clerk once, and she said the Base Commander authorized the NATO ribbon (Yugo) because they were out of the NATO-ISAF ribbons. When I inquired further, I found she only talked to an Admin Specialist who worked in the CG's office. And this is not the only time I found sales clerks giving wrong guidance. What's worse is when service members quote Ranger Joes, Quartermaster, US Cavalry Store, and other local retail sales stores.
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One that isn't "wrong" but does draw a lot of looks is when an individual has so many awards that they have to wear a second ribbon.
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TSgt Joshua Copeland
Max of 4 devices on one ribbon as I recall? I built a shadow box for a retiring command Chief that had to wear two Good Conduct ribbons.
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TSgt Joshua Copeland
TSgt Joshua Copeland, your right Cousin! I have 13 AFOUA's with a V device so I get the side eye every once in a while.
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MSgt Dan Calhoun
Yep, i have that issue with the Outstanding Unit Award, hate having to have that second ribbon
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CPO Jon Campbell l Funny story about an improperly worn ribbon: I rate a MUC and a NUC, however when I went to the PX I purchased a PUC. I mounted it, and one day while walking around base in my Charlie uniform a 1stSgt pulled me aside and asked me about my service, and how long I've been in, and how old I was...I asked why he wanted to know so much about me, sort of caught by surprise. He then pointed to the ribbon and asked me which one that was, I told him NUC, thankfully, he told me NO, that is a PUC, and the last time that was given out was during Vietnam and if I didn't want additional attention, I would change it as soon as possible. He was gracious to let me move out smartly to the PX and square away my rack. Never made that mistake twice.
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MAJ (Join to see)
SSG(P) (Join to see) Got one to go with that one. Had a new PFC report into my shop at Cherry Point - circa late 1982 - wearing 2 full rows of ribbons on his Alphas. Yes, the MSG squared him away but the best part was his initial answer. Completely honesty. "I went to the base near my home and just got the ones with the best colors." His saving grace was he did NOT have the baby blue one with the little white stars. This was a time when the Fire Watch ribbon was NOT a gimme for Boot Camp. He did collect a lot of attention on the next Charlie inspection for Payday.
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SFC Casey O'Mally
Don't know when that happened, but I have a PUC from 2003, so your 1SG was probably a bit out of date.... (unless you are talking about something other than Presidential Unit Citation)
If yiy are talking specifically the Navy version, multiple Naval units have received it in the 2000s... USS Parche, USS Liberty, JSOC, NSW Task Force, I MEG, and a couple different marine units, which a corpsman (or other Navy support personnel) could have been part of and recieved the Navy PUC (becaise the Navy one looks different from the Army or Air Force)
If yiy are talking specifically the Navy version, multiple Naval units have received it in the 2000s... USS Parche, USS Liberty, JSOC, NSW Task Force, I MEG, and a couple different marine units, which a corpsman (or other Navy support personnel) could have been part of and recieved the Navy PUC (becaise the Navy one looks different from the Army or Air Force)
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LCDR Ray Trygstad
My dad had a Navy doctor who somehow arranged ribbons he bought to show Mickey Mouse's head in the pattern they formed.
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Army members wearing Marine combat patches. I had a 1SG tell me to buy a 2MARDIV patch at the Surplus store for my uniform. I opened up AR670-1 and showed him where it said that Marine Unit patches were not authorized for wear on Army uniforms. Main reason for this is that the Marine Corps stopped using unit patches after WW2, and therefore, no current unit patches exist (hence the reason he wanted me to get it from a Surplus store). I carried a copy of that page of the ref with me because I saw so many prior service improperly wearing Marine patches.
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SGT (Join to see)
Actually for the units listed in the orders covering the Ramadi service for the 1st MEF did receive a signed exception to policy memo by the Army G1 authorizing the wear of the specially created 1st MEF patch. So, yes, a handful can wear it.
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SGT (Join to see)
In 2005 my battalion of 488 soldiers were given the memorandum authorizing us to wear the 1st and 2nd Mar Div patch
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After scanning over topics and running across your original message about the AFRM, I realized I was wearing mine wrong. I mobilized shortly after 9/11 and have since deployed twice (for a total of 3 mobilizations supporting ONE,OIF/OND, and OEF). To be honest, I never read the reg and went on word of mouth on the "M" device. Improperly had a "3" on there and flicked it off because of the post. RP keeping me straight!
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CPO Jon Campbell
The AFRM regs have changed several times. When I first joined, the hourglass was bronze for 20, silver for 30, and gold for 40. Now it is bronze for 10, silver for 20, and gold for 30. It changed when mandatory retirement at 30 years kicked in. Older guys would stop and question me for wearing a bronze hourglass and not having enough service stripes for 20 years. On top of that, the supply of silver hourglasses disappeared and it was very hard to find one anywhere for many years. Mine is still a 'theater made' silver hourglass - bronze with tinfoil wrapped around it.
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Not so much a normally wrongly worn ribbon but a funny story. I'm 2009 I was at RAF Alconbury in the U.K. During a Change of Command for our new Security Forces Commander coming in, somehow something caught my attention. During our new Commanders introduction address I start looking him over trying to figure it out. From approximately 50 meters away I figure it out. His AF Basic Training and Expert Ribbons were reversed.
Being a SSgt at the time and the new Commander being a Major I wanted to be sure so I just held it in. Once we were back at our unit, I was able to get a close enough look to confirm the mistake. I waited for the Major to finish speaking with a SNCO and when the opportunity presented itself I introduced myself as his UDM/NCOIC Supply/One man logistics person. After asking if I asked if I could speak with him for a second, I was able to get him out of earshot where anyone could overhear the conversation. I told him I had noticed there must have been an accident during preparation by the local creators and that his ribbons were displaying incorrectly.
He thanked me, corrected it and I never heard grief from any leadership on it. Will always be the best Commander I ever served.
Being a SSgt at the time and the new Commander being a Major I wanted to be sure so I just held it in. Once we were back at our unit, I was able to get a close enough look to confirm the mistake. I waited for the Major to finish speaking with a SNCO and when the opportunity presented itself I introduced myself as his UDM/NCOIC Supply/One man logistics person. After asking if I asked if I could speak with him for a second, I was able to get him out of earshot where anyone could overhear the conversation. I told him I had noticed there must have been an accident during preparation by the local creators and that his ribbons were displaying incorrectly.
He thanked me, corrected it and I never heard grief from any leadership on it. Will always be the best Commander I ever served.
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The biggest mistake I see on Army uniforms is the number of Overseas Service Bars (combat stripes). They always count their months wrong. If a soldier deployed on a 12 month rotation and was there from June 28th, 07 to July 1st, 08, that counts as 13 months when calculating the months for the bars. If they have several deployments, a lot of times they have extra months that add up to another bar. You can't go off the month total tallied on your ERB. That is for HRCs total for other things. You actually have to count your month separately. Even one day of a month counts as a total month but it will not calculate as a month on the tally if it wasn't 30 days. I've corrected SGMs and 1SGs on this even.
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I feel like I should make a joke about ribbons being worn upside down...
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CPT (Join to see)
Many Soldiers with three ribbons (for the last 10 years the most common is ASR, GWOTSM, NDSM) have their ribbons 'upside-down' in that they reversed the order.
In those cases I help them fix it as kindly and privately as I can, since it generally means they have barely been in long enough to know better.
In those cases I help them fix it as kindly and privately as I can, since it generally means they have barely been in long enough to know better.
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CW2 Jonathan Kantor
I recently found out I had been wearing the wrong NATO ribbon for two years. It's the one they gave to me and it wasn't the right one!
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