Ribbon Check: Sources

As of 3 July 2024

This ribbon checker is based on ribbon precedences and other guidelines in these authoritative publications:

Ribbons not mentioned in Auxman’s table of precedence are mostly covered in the cited Army publications, especially PAM 670-1.

About Precedence & This Ribbon Checker

The manner and order in which medals and ribbons are to be worn is known as precedence. Precedence is established by a combination of federal law, departmental regulations and specific rules of wear promulgated by each federal uniformed service, whether military or civilian. The Army Department’s heraldry unit is frequently the starting point for establishing the design, manner of wear, and precedence of a new medal or ribbon.

The primary purpose of this ribbon checker is to help Coast Guard members, Auxiliary members, and veterans arrange and wear their ribbons in proper Coast Guard uniform precedence.

Ribbons with equal precedence are worn in the order received, oldest first. Auxiliarists who earned awards while a member of another uniformed federal service should use care when adding devices to ribbons and medals. Devices should reflect the regulations of the uniformed service where the device was most recently earned.

Combining Auxiliary and regular service ribbons into a single precedence list is tricky, in part because certain obsolete Auxiliary ribbons are no longer awarded or have been recycled under new names. Also, older federal or foreign ribbons (such as from the Korean or Vietnam wars) may have been earned with prior service, but are no longer seen on the uniforms of today’s active duty Coast Guard members; still, older Auxiliarists and Coast Guard veterans are usually allowed to wear them. In a few cases, reliable illustrations of obsolete Auxiliary ribbons are missing or commercial military supply shops mislabel them.

Inevitably, some Coast Guard members and veterans will be recipients of medals or ribbons not shown in this ribbon checker and not included in the above-listed COMDTINST documents. In such cases, don’t guess at the solution; instead refer queries through your chain of command or chain of responsibility for a definitive ruling.

Obsolete Auxiliary Ribbons

Here is an explanation for obsolete Auxiliary ribbons, condensed from several sources:

In 1975, six awards were issued under the Auxiliary’s now-defunct Goal Attainment Process (GAP). While the intent of the program was to encourage each flotilla to achieve certain performance objectives across a breadth of operational and administrative areas, its structure was flawed: It provided the same reward, such as the Member Training Achievement ribbon, to all members regardless of the time or effort invested in helping the flotilla meet the award’s eligibility criteria.

In 1988, these shortcomings led GAP to be shelved in favor of AMOS, or Auxiliary Mission Objective System, which set goals for the flotilla as a whole as well as for each of its members.

In 1995, AMOS was replaced by the current Annual Service Performance Award System, which sets well-defined requirements that individual Auxiliarists must meet to earn the award and attendant decoration.

In the most recent edition of the Auxiliary Manual (COMDTINST M16790.1G), the Coast Guard Auxiliary revised its stance on obsolete awards, and it now allows wear of discontinued decorations provided they are in good condition.

Several obsolete GAR and AMOS ribbons — some given new names — were recycled into the current Annual Service Performance Award System. This effectively means that there is no way of knowing under which program these ribbons were issued without consulting the AuxData II database. Use current precedence for those ribbons.

The recycled ribbons and modern names are: Auxiliary Vessel Examination and RBS Visitation Program Service Performance Award, Auxiliary Operations Service Award, Flotilla Meritorious Achievement Award, and Operations Program Ribbon.

Although authorized for wear, the discontinued GAP ribbons are not given any precedence in Auxman. As such, most likely they should be worn just after the AMOS ribbons.

Rule of thumb: If two identical-appearing ribbons are earned and one is obsolete, wear only the most recent in its proper place; omit the older ribbon. Only the Medal of Honor ribbon can be worn multiple times.

streamer

The campaign streamer featured at the top of this web site was awarded to Coast Guard predecessor services for operations against West Indian pirates in the 1820s and ’30s.

Credits

Many ribbon illustrations were created for Wikipedia. Like all illustrations of U.S. government decorations, these are in the public domain.

Many thanks are owed to those who beta tested this tool, especially Capt. Robert Hanley, USCGR (ret.); members of U.S. Coast Guard Flotilla 114-06-06 in Orange County, California; and other members of Auxiliary Division 114-6. Their comments were most helpful in the long research and debugging process.