411 please

[mike hernandez]

<HR style="COLOR: #ccccff" SIZE=1> <!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->i noticed a few Marines had ribbons for things they never offered when i was in. i didn't get anything for the evacuation of saigon. if anyone knows someone who did, let me know what i warrant. also i went on Nato wargames. i see they have a multinational ribbon. an lst took us to Norway for the nato show of strength in 1976. Russia was stockpiling on finnlands border so we scared the out of there. i know some meritorious mast were given out. but i left back to my unit before i got handed anything.so summing up,, saigon,Nato , multinational forces,i heard you get a ribbon just for getting on a ship too.maybe i'm over simplifying things but can anyone help with some 411? God Bless the Corps

[taman8tor]

Hello Mike, <br />
<br />
Hopefully, I recall this correctly. The Corps admin in your battalion/company (the process might be different in the air wing but I really don't know) should have made some entries in...

[ggyoung]

Mike==============The Marine Corps now give out ribbons for everything. They are called "feel good ribons". They are doing the same thing as the army is doing. During Vietnam when the Corps came out with the CAR there were a few old salts that were not one bit happy about it. There thought was We are Marines we don't need anything to say we were in a firefight.

[Zulu 36]

The ribbon business is getting out of hand, I think. I spent 6yrs in the USMC, plus a year in USMCR, nine months in Vietnam, two WestPac tours, and I had seven ribbons including the Firewatch and Undetected Crime. Fairly average for my service, given I'd been to Vietnam. I enlisted in the Air National Guard like that.

After just my first full drill weekend, I rated 11 ribbons. The AF gives a ribbon and OLC instead of hashmarks (I'll give them this one), plus a ribbon and star device for shooting expert with rifle and pistol, and an AF Outstanding Unit Award I could wear while assigned to the wing (l was in units that later earned the AFOU, so I have it permanently). They also gave me the AF Training ribbon - for graduating from basic training. No sh*t, I thought I got the EGA for that.

Here is a funny part. Once you earn the expert marksman ribbon in the AF, you keep it forever even if you shoot unq for the rest of your life. Go figure. I kept mine legit though.

When I retired 14 years later I had 22 ribbons and a ton of devices. I look like a Third World dictator and most of them are just "feel goods" and "I wuz there" stuff.

I kept asking for the Meritorious Chow Line Standing ribbon, but the personnel officer kept throwing me out of his office. Guess I didn't qualify. I did get to be on a first name basis with him. I called him "captain" and he called me "a**hole." :D

My oldest daughter graduated from AF basic training with three ribbons right off the bat.

[The1stSgt]

Mike, I believe you can contact the "Awards Branch" at HQMC and give them the units you served with and the dates your were with them, and they can tell you what ribbons and medals you rate.

[mike hernandez]

thanks Top,
i'll google the address for hdqts marine corps. but like i said, i was on temporay additional duty. and it seems that stuff never made it to my dd214. now i can tell you every bar on magsaysay. an a-6 intruder crashed and killed two marines on the runway and my ncoic frank kindred was medivacced to oki for severe burns.i was there man and my dd214 don't reflect a thing about it. except that i got r&r in korea when i got back to Iwakuni...thanks for your help Sir..

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Mike, I gave someone else the awards website on here, it'll allow you to check what you rate, by unit, and by timeframe. I can't recall it off the top of my head at the moment tho.

When I got out the first time in '89, I thought I was high speed with 4 ribbons....

I can tell you, I don't think you'll rate the NATO medal, tho, altho you may rate the Artic Service ribbon if you did time above a certain latitude.

BTW...I think I got something like 5 medals/ribbons for my medfloat during the Kosovo thing...all for the same dang thing. Go figure. I've earned a couple more since I've been out, including one for 'Korean Service" for Team Spirit...

[mike hernandez]

i want to thank everyone who replied here. some good humor and advice i couldn't get anywhere else i looked. i hope the Holidays are a joyous occasion for all. semper fidelis...mike

[greensideout]

Mike, contact the Corps with a request for awards earned while serving. You should receive a DD-215 to amend your current DD-214 if they find that you have awards that you have not been isused.