Wearing ISAF or other bars awarded with NATO medal

[SgtRamrod]

Bunch of guys in my unit just got our NATO medals for serving in Afghanistan, and I have a question on the wear of the nato medal... The ones we were awarded say ISAF across the ribbon. I'm fairly sure that I've never seen a Marine with an ISAF on a ribbon. Do we need to add these to our ribbons that we buy in the future? I'm trying to find the actual order for the wear of the ribbon so I can brief my Marines on it...

[hussaf]

Are you asking if the ribbon should say ISAF on it, like a pewter device that pins onto the ribbon? Man, I haven't seen anything like that at all. But I'm not sure.

The order is really easy to find via Google, I looked it up recently to see which one we rate (there are two NATO medals, and they look real similar). Oh yeah, and we were told ours takes 6 months to process, which is ridiculous.

[DIMAS86]

Yeah, I deffinetly hope this Q gets answered. I'm in the same boat. Except for six months?? My unit's not even back in the states yet. I had never heard of this medal, till it popped up on MOL one day.

[Martin513]

I'm not sure on the order. But I'm pretty sure that when it's worn as a medal it does have the ISAF bar. As a ribbon then no bar. Or at least that's how we've always done it

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Negative. ISAF bar is NOT authorized on the ribbon or the medal when you wear it.

Direct from SECNAVINST 1650.1H (2006 revision, newest one I could find)

http://www.marines.mil/news/publicat...%201650.1H.pdf

e. Appropriate Wear. The NATO Medal presentation set
may include a ribbon clasp denoting the specific operation for
which the award was made. U.S. service members may retain the
ribbon clasp if presented; however, wearing of the ribbon clasp
with the NATO Medal or service ribbon is not authorized; only
the basic medal or service ribbon is worn. A 3/16 inch bronze
star is affixed to the suspension ribbon and service ribbon to
denote subsequent awards.

[hussaf]

Oh the bar, gotcha. Yeah, I don't remember seeing that on anyone...but its not like I stare at dudes' chests at the Ball or anything.

Yeah, apparently MHG is running my crap and it takes them 6 months to process it....People are super lazy these days, and don't care about anything other than their shop...even though the whole reason their shop exists is to support others. Heck I just had a training certificate get lost....again, by MHG. To their benefit, awards I've recieved from Division have been run quicker.