Posted on May 8, 2022
Why you don't add campaign stars on the NATO medal?
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Since I'm duty today, I'd figured I'd ask the community as I start reading the regulation. Other than the Afghanistan, Iraq & Syria (Inherent Resolve) service ribbons, has anyone ever wondered why you don't add campaign stars on the NATO medal?
Awards
Army Regulations
Ribbons
Posted 2 y ago
Responses: 4
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The NATO medal is a foreign award where as the other awards are campaign medals. For the campaign medals one star is worn for each designated campaign you serve in. For the NATO medal you add one star for each award (see para 9-11 of AR 600-8-22). The key point of differentiation is that while the Afghanistan medal has 6 eligible campaigns, the Iraq medal had 7 eligible campaigns, and the IR medal has 4 eligible campaigns (to date), the periods for award of the NATO medal have been much longer. For example in Afghanistan there have been two periods for award: ISAF (JUN2003 - DEC2014) and Resolute Support (JAN2015-TBD).
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SSG (Join to see)
Thanks for the support brother. Let me ask you this? And maybe this is preference or interpretation. Would you do a NATO ribbon with a star? Or would you do two NATO ribbobs, one for ISAF and one for Resolute Support? Just asking what you would do?
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SSG (Join to see)
SSG (Join to see) thanks for getting this conversation going, I love to get into the minutia of regs. As I read it (and lord knows I could be wrong), as far as your ribbon rack is concerned there is only one NATO ribbon, so if say you had one from resolute support, one from ISAF, one from Iraq, and one from KFOR, one ribbon with three stars would be worn. The clasps on NATO awards denoting which medal you've received aren't authorized for wear by the DoD.
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I was tracking that you did add Campaign/Service Stars to the NATO Medal for multiple awards of the medal as NATO authorizes different medals for different campaigns that denote different ribbons and rather than allowing troops to wear multiple NATO medals the awarded Soldier would wear the initial NATO medal and then add stars to it.
This also comes up as most NATO Medals (foreign) are awarded with Campaign Clasps, this can be seen on the NATO Medal awarded in Afghanistan for Enduring Freedom or Freedom's Sentinel in which a bronze bar with the word "AFGHANISTAN" is attached to the medal and ribbon. This is not authorized for U.S. wear.
So if you were on multiple NATO missions, i.e. Bosnia and Afghanistan then you would add a star but only wear the ribbon of whichever medal was awarded first.
I would check 600-8-22 to be 100% certain as I am only going off memory from when I was helping a Vet complete their Shadow Box.
This also comes up as most NATO Medals (foreign) are awarded with Campaign Clasps, this can be seen on the NATO Medal awarded in Afghanistan for Enduring Freedom or Freedom's Sentinel in which a bronze bar with the word "AFGHANISTAN" is attached to the medal and ribbon. This is not authorized for U.S. wear.
So if you were on multiple NATO missions, i.e. Bosnia and Afghanistan then you would add a star but only wear the ribbon of whichever medal was awarded first.
I would check 600-8-22 to be 100% certain as I am only going off memory from when I was helping a Vet complete their Shadow Box.
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CW2 (Join to see)
Correct. The stars are for multiple DIFFERENT NATO medals. It doesn't matter how many of the same one you get. I have 2 ISAF and 2 Kosovo, so I wear the ISAF (which came first) with one star to denote a second DIFFERENT NATO medal (Kosovo).
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A1C (Join to see)
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Is it a service medal or campaign medal? In RVN, we got a campaign medal from RVN and a service medal from the US. The service medal had the campaign stars. The campaign medal had a bar with 60-. That what the RVN guvment had on it and as a foreign decoration that was it. NATO would be a foreign decoration, so what ever they put on it would be it. When the Army authorizes a foreign decoration, the acceptance says where and how worn.
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CPT (Join to see)
As well, there are multiple NATO medals for various areas and times. They have a variation on a theme with the stripes on the blue. It doesn't seem to be a count of how many times one is there, just "I was there at least once" and the stripe layout differentiates where.
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