Dress Blue Alphas and some questions

[wonderboy]

So I'm a pretty new Marine and I'm still at my MOS school at the moment, so I don't know everything and I'm still learning a lot.

A guy I graduated boot camp with posted a picture in his Dress Blue Alphas. He was wearing both the ribbon and the medal. I was always under the impression that you would wear the medal if it rated one and not the ribbon. Someone pointed that out, and he disagreed, as well did another Marine, saying that you rate both the medal and the ribbon so you wear both.

I'm pretty sure he's wrong but I wanted to do some research about it to learn anyway. So I was looking at the Navy Uniform Regulations about it. Some things had me confused.

It referenced 'large medals' and 'miniature medals.' I understand the Medal of Honor would be a large medal. Are there any other large medals and is every other medal a miniature medal then?

In the regs, it states you would wear large medals and ribbons together, but it says any uniform requiring miniature medals you would not wear ribbons. So does that mean for someone who has rated like 3 or 4 ribbons and only one of them rates a medal, that they would just wear that one medal on their alphas?

I went in looking for an answer, came out more confused, and now I'm really curious, heh. Thanks for any help.

On a side note, the Commandant and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. spoke to us today and that was pretty cool.

[ARTYPIG]

If you are wearing Dress Blue Alpha's, you wear wear medals and ribbons. The rule is that you wear the medal over left breast pocket and the ribbons that don't rate a medal are worn over the right breast pocket. If an award is represented by a medal, then it will not be worn over the right breast pocket represented by a ribbon as it is already displayed. NEVER do you wear a medal and the ribbon at the same time.

[SSgtRSD]

On Dress Bluea Alphas you wear medals (large) on the left breast and ribbons that don't rate medals (ie: combat action ribbon or sea service deployment ribbon) on the right. Miniature medals are for the formal dress uniforms or when worn with civilian formal wear (ie: retired Marines at a MC Ball).

[iamspartacus]

I concur with what has previously been said. I assume the award your friend was wearing was the National Defense award. It has a medal and a ribbon. So to sum it up, your friend should only have been wearing the medal. No ribbon. For instructional purposes only, let's assume your friend had two awards: the National Defense and Sea Service Deployment award. In this case, he would wear his National Defense medal over his left breast pocket and his Sea Service Deployment ribbon over his right breast pocket.

[MrsEspinosa]

I'm just a Marine wife and know that when wearing medals and ribbons with the uniforms you can wear both. To clarify this more, just as the others have said, say you have a National Defense medal and a Sea Service ribbon. The medals would be worn on the left and the ribbons on the right. Never wear the medal and ribbon of the same thing. It's either or, not both. You can always look it up online on many sites what ribbons have medals and which ones don't. Worst case scenario, don't be afraid to ask a high up for some advise. Most don't care if you have a question. I know I always ask my husbands one SSgt a million questions all the time and he doesn't seem to mind helping out.

[MarinesFTW]

Did your drill instructors teach you anything? Also, you have plenty of NCO's and SNCO's all around you that you could ask. I saw a guy who recently got married, everyone who was in there blues had there medals correct except for the groom who had his medals on his right, how they allow someone to get married while being completely ****ed up is beyond me. Tell your instructors you all need a class on uniforms. I'm seeing more and more kids messed up on the simpliest things. Ive been in for a year and a half and know what goes where, and if I dont, I ask my chain of command. Good on you for trying to look it up yourself, just remember, there is a wealth of knowledge all around you.