Getting the Ribbons in the Right Order

A shadow box hangs in a hallway for decades. Most visitors glance at it. But sooner or later someone who served is going to stand in front of it a little longer than everyone else, and they will notice if the Good Conduct Medal is sitting above a personal decoration.

Getting the order right isn't hard. It takes the right chart and about twenty minutes of patience.

How precedence works

Ribbons and medals go in order of precedence, highest first. On a uniform, the highest award sits on the top row, on the wearer's right. The rest follow from the wearer's right to left across each row, then down to the next row.

Here's what trips people up in a shadow box: you're looking at it from the front, the way you'd look at the person wearing them. So the wearer's right is your left. As you face the box, the highest award goes top left.

Broadly, the order runs like this, though every branch has its own exact list:

1. Personal decorations, highest to lowest
2. Unit awards
3. Good conduct medals
4. Campaign and service medals, roughly in historical order
5. Service and training ribbons
6. Foreign decorations and approved international medals, such as NATO and UN medals

When the same award was earned more than once, it doesn't get a second ribbon. It gets a device on the first one: oak leaf clusters in some branches, small gold and silver stars in others, plus numerals and letter devices in specific cases. Get the devices right too. They're small, and they matter a great deal to the person who earned them.

Find your branch's official chart

Each branch publishes an awards manual with an order-of-precedence chart. Search for the current version by name, since they get updated:

• Army: Army Regulation 600-8-22, Military Awards
• Navy and Marine Corps: the Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual, SECNAV M-1650.1
• Air Force and Space Force: DAFMAN 36-2806, Military Awards
• Coast Guard: the Coast Guard Medals and Awards Manual

Use the chart for the branch the person served in. If they served in more than one, the manuals explain how awards from other services fit in.

Medals, ribbons or both

A shadow box can hold the full-size medals, the ribbon rack, or both. Full-size medals look great and take up room. A common layout puts the ribbon rack up top and a row of full-size medals underneath in the same order. If space is tight, a ribbon rack plus the one or two medals that meant the most is a perfectly respectable choice.

Three to a row is the most common ribbon layout, though some branches allow four. If the top row comes out short, center it over the row below.

Missing a medal? It can usually be replaced

Medals get lost in moves, handed down to grandkids or never issued in the first place, which happens more than you'd think. Veterans can request replacement medals at no cost through the National Personnel Records Center, part of the National Archives, online or by mail with a Standard Form 180. Next of kin can usually request them too, though the Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard don't take next-of-kin requests for records more than 62 years old. It can take months, so start early if the box is for a retirement or a memorial.

The same request can get you a copy of the service record, which is the best way to confirm which awards were actually earned. Memory is great. Paperwork is better.

Plenty of families also buy replica medals from military supply shops for display and keep the issued originals in a drawer. Completely normal, and nobody looking at the box can tell.

One last check before the glass goes on

Lay everything out, take a photo and compare it to the chart one more time. If you know someone who served in the same branch, send them the picture. Twenty minutes now saves a lifetime of someone at a party leaning in and asking, "Hey, is that supposed to go there?"