Wessel Gordon

I ordered ribbons for the medals in my collection plus 4 ribbon mounts that mount 9 ribbons each. Since I have 33 different medals I need only 3 more to complete the fourth ribbon rack. Here's a list of my collection...any suggestions to which medals to add to complete the ribbon bar will be appreciated: Congressional Medal of Honor Air Force Cross Silver Star Defense Superior Service Medal Legion of Merit Airman's Medal for Heroism Soldier’s Medal Navy & Marine Corps Medal Bronze Star Purple Heart Defense Meritous Service Medal Air Medal Air Force Commendation Medal Army Commendation Medal Air Force Achievement Medal Joint Service Achievement Medal Prisoner of War Medal Air Force Good Conduct Medal Army Good Conduct Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal Air Reserve Meritious Service Medal Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal Army of Occupation Medal American Defense Service Medal Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal. National Defense Service Medal Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal Vietnam Service Medal Afghanistan Campaign Medal Southwest Asia Service Medal Korea Defense Service Medal Humanitarian Service Medal Armed Forces Reserve Medal Philippines Liberation Medal Kind regards, Wessel

Sorry for that un-military rant but some things just manage to push my ''go to inter-continental ballistic missile mode'' button. To get back to the topic in hand: I purchased wage envelopes (made from the same kind of paper of those old brown paper bags you used to get) and adapted the various fields pre-printed on it to indicate which medal is inside etc and put the medal inside for the duration. However I did not seal the envelopes as I'm not sure if there's any acid in the glue-strip so I kept the covering on over the glue-strip.

I have a total of 33 US medals (a mixture of Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force) and spent some time on a website building an imaginary ribbon-rack. Depending on which branch I picked at the beginning there seemed to be different orders of precedence for each branch of the military or is it just me imagining things?

Thanks Lukasz

Lukasz Most of the medals in that photograph are copies of the actual medals. They were advertised on various sites as copies and I bought them with the full knowledge that it was not the real thing.

Lukasz, I don't mean mounting the medals themselves but the ribbons as shown in this Wikipedia photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awards_and_decorations_of_the_United_States_Armed_Forces#/media/File:Navy_Ribbons_and_Badges.jpg The medals themselves I intend to show next to each other in order of precedence and not mounted on a rack.

I recently bought quite a few US miniature medals and want to create a ribbon rack for all of them. The conundrum is that I have 33 different medals and the supplier I usually biggest ribbon mount only hold 30. The ribbons are not intended for wearing but for display so I was wondering if I should instead buy 4 mounts of 9 ribbons each (3 per row) which gives me space for 36 in case I buy more. The idea then is to start at the extreme right mount on the extreme right of the bottom row of the first mount and mount the ''lowest ranking'' ribbon there and work up the ladder of precedence with the effect that the four mounts would be situated right next to each other with the highest ranking medal's ribbon displayed on the last mount. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Paul Wood, Nothing that exotic that made me want to move faster. New neighbors have 4 dogs: Two Rottweilers, Daschund and a Maltese. The Rottweilers and Daschund ripped the Maltese apart with the whole neighborhood's dogs automatically going insane. The neighbor's yards are two yards wide and the house are on the far side from ours so I had to scream like a banshee for them to intervene...8-9 year old girl get sent out first, the mom comes sauntering out like she's on holiday, leans on a tree stump and lazily puts her shoes on and walks slowly towards the already dead Maltese. When I asked why the £"% they didn't realize what's going on the nonchalant answer was ''We didn't hear anything'' but all the dogs in at least a 5 house radius heard it. That happened on Wednesday, we went out of town yesterday and lo and behold there's not a single dog left on the neighbor's yard. When I told them the Maltese are already dead they looked at me like I'm talking a foreign language and with an attitude that radiates with ''so what?'' Let's just say I purposefully made some very unneighborly remarks loud enough for them to hear. Edit: so to answer your question: people with a extreme case of ''don't give a £"%^'' about animals and what's happening right under their noses.

Paul, 1951 was 20 years before I was born so that's prehistory for me too. The move will probably happen before the end of the year so we're talking maximum 4-5 months. Something that is not military related (so I'd rather not divulge the details) happened in our neighborhood today and it just convinced me we need to move out of here faster than Hitler's famous Blitzkrieg at the beginning of World War 2.

I recently received my first order of 6 ribbons of which I own either the full size or miniature US medal. I also own a copy of the MOH with a lapel pin and ribbon bar with a brooch pin back. After ordering the 6 ribbons I bought 19 more US miniatures of which I also want to buy the ribbons. My question is: if I buy the ribbons loose with a ribbon rack and compile the rack myself how difficult is that going to be? Is it possible to do it yourself or is it best left to a professional? I'm medically unfit for work so having time to do it (and re-do it if needed) isn't the issue and thanks to several sites on the internet figuring out the order of precedence isn't going to be a major headache.

Would plain envelopes work to store the medals? The advantage I see in using envelopes is that I can write the name/s of the medals inside on it first, slip the medal in and seal it to protect against dust etc. I recently received a package from the US of ribbons and the box was filled with crumpled papers which I ignored because they were obviously just there to stop the contents jumping around. Luckily my sixth sense told me to check that I received all the items and it turned out I ordered a miniature medal with the same order so I had to retrieve the discarded box from the trash and open each piece of paper until I found the medal. Lesson learnt: in future open every scrap of paper over 1 mm in diameter to check for hidden contents.

922F I didn't even notice the Legion of Merit till you pointed it out. His ribbon rack isn't very clear but the uppermost ribbon does look like that of an MOH, so why he chose to wear a ''lower degree'' medal is anyone's guess besides his. The strange thing is: I enlarged the photo till all his ribbons was clear...the top-most ribbon is definitely a MOH but there seems to be no ribbon for a Legion of Merit...could it be that he just received the Legion of Merit which explains it not being on the ribbon bar? As to miniatures of the MOH I have seen 1/16th size versions for sale on E-Bay but they look so small that they'll cover the tip of my little finger. I would like to have a miniature but not one that I basically need intense magnification to see properly.

So just to let me get this straight in my mind; there's 3 basic rules with the placement of a MOH ribbon: 1. Full row of three under it: MOH ribbon centered above the middle ribbon; 2. Top row with two other medals: MOH ribbon to the right; 3. Row with 2 ribbons: MOH worn to the right of the other ribbon. Thanks for all the help.

Not sure how long I'll have to store them, to be honest. Maybe the best solution is to not wrap them in anything and store them somewhere that I'm fairly sure somebody won't be snooping around. But obviously with strangers in and out showing them off out in the open isn't an option.

Thanks Paul and Peter. i was thinking a normal A4 sheet of paper you use for printers etc. Just take a clean page and wrap the medal inside it. Lot of paperwork, lol, but if it helps keep my collection safe I'm happy.

I don't have albums with medal slips...would a plain piece of unprinted A4 paper wrapped around each medal help?

Paul Wood, Thanks. I'm just afraid of some weird chemical interaction between the metal and the plastic doing damage to the medal itself. I doubt I would find a 19th century cabinet but my one brother in law is good with woodwork and he's willing to help out with building shadowboxes. Would also be easier to explain to him what I want instead of a complete stranger. Since I have medals of three countries the plan is to display each country's medal in a separate box otherwise one box might look overcrowded and confusing. But the shadowboxes is still far in the future since we have to settle in the new house first and I have to then figure out where the best spot would be to put the boxes.

We are in the process of having the house repaired in preparation for a move so there's a lot of people in and out the whole time. Obviously I don't want my medal collection to attract attention from sticky fingers so I was wondering what the best way was to store them for at least a few weeks. Currently they are individually stored in those plastic coin bags you used to get years ago from banks but I'm sure that's not the best solution. Any suggestions are very welcome.

Doc, Thanks for the answer. That's what I meant with ''politely allowed''. No official rule for it and no official rule against it, simply accepted custom. Is it the only US medal is usually worn together with the ribbon or can any medal be worn with the ribbon on the ribbon bar?

Just a quick question for our American friends: in the link below several holders of the MOH are wearing both the actual medal and the ribbon on their ribbon bars. Is this officially sanctioned or politely allowed considering what these men went through to get the medal? I was under the impression that in most countries military establishments it is a case of either wearing the medals themselves or the ribbons (never together), depending on the occasion and circumstances. Kind regards, Wessel Gordon

Silly question: is there any decree/documentation showing the medals that was sold with the wrong ribbon with the correct ribbon and how easy would it be to source the correct ribbon?

Arthur, Thank you for the answer. I like the 10, 20 and 30 year medals as a set as they look good together but on the other hand I was attracted to the John Chards because of their unique shape. Wessel

My brother turns 40 on the 13 of September and since he's busy studying for his pilot's license I got him an anodized Air Medal plus the golden rank insignia of a four star general. However I would like to add some more fun to the occasion by also presenting him with an certificate of promotion to full general. The templates I find on the net are incredibly hard to read or proprietors do not react on requests...does anyone have an idea of what kind of wording would be appropriate? Since this is a birthday gift (which is given in a spirit of fun and not funeral formality) and not a real promotion ceremony some quirky phrases or remarks are welcomed. For all those thinking this is meant to be serious...it's not. It's just a bit of (hopeful) hilarity between two brothers.

Balkan & Mike Thanks for the replies. I have to agree with Mike I've never heard of a RSM that doesn't have the ability to see a speck of dust on equipment at a minimum distance of a thousand yards.

Great Dane, You are correct: I do have many reproductions. The thing is I want to put them all up for display and original medals lack some of the shine of the reproductions. But as you rightly remarked at the end I don't want them damaged (reproduction or real) so it might be best to put them up for display ''as is''. That is unless I organize the display in such a way that the real medals are displayed in one side/corner and marked as ''Real'' while the reproductions are displayed in another side/corner clearly marked ''reproductions''.