How to Build a Rack of Army Ribbons
Army ribbons represent decorations, service medals, and training and service accomplishments that a soldier earns throughout their military service. Army ribbons may be mounted on a ribbon mount which can be purchased at any military clothing store, almost always located on an Army post. You can also purchase a ribbon mount online. Some soldiers prefer to have their ribbons commercially mounted, which is authorized. The wearer must ensure that the color of the background of the commercial mount is black or that it matches the uniform fabric. If there is a border trim it must not exceed 1/8 inch. Plastic or plastic coated ribbons are not authorized.
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Instructions
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Wear your ribbons in the required order of precedence. The order of precedence for military decorations may be found in Army Regulation 670-1, Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia, Paragraph 29-6, dated Feb. 3, 2005. Ribbons are worn from the wearer's right to left in one or more rows. If the wearer has more than one row, the distance between the rows may not exceed 1/8 inch. A row of ribbons may not exceed four ribbons and the size of the coat and position of the wearer's lapel should be considered. One important fact to remember when building your rows of ribbons is that the first and second row must have the same amount of ribbons, either three or four. If you have a third row or more, the second row can have fewer ribbons but it should be centered on the row beneath or aligned to the wearer's left, whichever gives the best appearance.
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Wear accouterments to denote ribbons that have been awarded more than once. They are represented by oak leaf clusters, numerals, valor or "V" devices, "M" devices for Army Reservists, or clasps. For example, if a soldier has been awarded three Army Achievement Medals, they would not wear three Arm;y Achievement ribbons. The accouterments for an Achievement Medal is an oak leaf cluster. The triple awardee would wear the AAM ribbon with two oak leaf clusters--the ribbon represents the first award and the oak leaf clusters represent the 2nd and 3rd awards. How to mount and wear the proper accouterments is further defined in Army Regulation 600-8-22, Military Awards, dated Dec. 11, 2006.
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Place you ribbon mount on your uniform once it is properly arrayed. Male personnel will mount the ribbon rack centered and 1/8 inch over the left breast pocket. If you have an offset ribbon rack, or the third row or beyond is off-center because it has three ribbons while the first two rows have four ribbons, you must ensure that you use the first row as the center when placing the ribbon rack above the left breast pocket.
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Female soldiers will wear their ribbon rack centered on the left side of their uniform with the bottom row parallel to the bottom edge of their nameplate. The nameplate is worn 1 to 2 inches above the top button of the coat and centered horizontally on the wearer's right side.
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Tips & Warnings
The wearing of the ribbons is for the most part optional; however, there are some occasions where a commander may require a soldier to wear their ribbons. Some instances would be during a parade, an inspection, a command review or a funeral. Also, formal Army ceremonies require the wearing of all awarded ribbons. In any circumstance, soldiers are always encouraged to wear all their awarded ribbons.
A solider may not wear their awards (ribbons) when in civilian clothes or serving confinement.
