Talk:Medal ribbon

Untitled
is there currently a guide to different ribbon bars on wikipedia (us or otherwise)?

I don't think there is a place for the Fictional character Harmon Rabb from TV's JAG ribbons. Either this article is factual or fictional.BatteryIncluded (talk) 04:38, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

The ribbonbars would be so much more useful if they were linked to the respective medals --62.224.203.46 (talk) 23:05, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

For several 'Notable ribbon racks', it is noted, '(foreign decorations not pictured)'. Foreign to where? I am assuming the owner's country. Should this be specified? Blaxcell (talk) 05:05, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Harmon Rabb
It seems like having ribbons for Harmon Rabb on this page is inappropriate. While all others belong to factual characters who fought in war, his is the only fictional set. I recommend it be removed. 174.0.56.57 (talk) 03:58, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

List medals?
In the "Notable examples" section, would it be an idea to list (and link to) the medals being awarded...i.e. have the graphics on the right and the text on the left. In order to avoid overwhelming, they could be hidden inside a collapse template. -- saberwyn 02:32, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Does anyone know the term for collection
Does anyone know the term for the study/collecting of ribbons? I know coins for example employs the term numismatics. What is the term for ribbons? Djathink imacowboy  04:12, 21 November 2011 (UTC)
 * This would probably roll up under Faleristics. EricSerge (talk) 05:32, 21 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Ah, wonderful! Many thanks indeed. PHALERISTICS is an alternative spelling I have discovered- that is the word I'd seen years ago. Thanks so much! Sorry, popped in to say, I am especially appreciative because, believe it or not, I had been unable to locate this term for YEARS. Even some experts did not know the name for it. Djathink imacowboy  05:54, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

Page Moved: "Service Ribbon" and "Ribbon Bar"
(For anyone who is interested): I'd never heard of the term "ribbon bar" until very recently; I'd always heard of ribbons being referred to as "service ribbons" (I'm in the U.S., perhaps the other term is more common in the militaries of other countries?)  This led me to do a google search for "service ribbon" and "ribbon bar", using quotes, whereupon I got the following results:

"service ribbon" - 4,430,000 results

"ribbon bar" - 876,000 results

After flipping through numerous pages of the results for "service ribbon" and noting that the entries were discussing military ribbons, I observed that the first page of results and many thereafter for "ribbon bar" are not talking about military ribbons but instead other topics. Hence, I concluded the WP:COMMONNAME for these items is "service ribbon" and moved the article to that location. Regards, AzureCitizen (talk) 20:42, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

Good move. The manuals use ribbon, service ribbon, and ribbon bar. — Preceding unsigned comment added by YahwehSaves (talk • contribs) 22:59, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

size of ribbons
I found an old source (1921) discussing service ribbon's

These are simply short strips of the same design and width as the distincitve ribbon from which the medal itself is suspended and are known as service ribbons. The length of these service ribbons varies in different countries; the longest are the Portuguese, $7/8$ inch, the shortest are the Russian, $7/32$ inch. The British regulation length is $1/2$ inch, the Italian $11/32$ inch, the American $3/8$ inch. In some countries there is no prescribed length. ... It should be understood that the "length" of a ribbon is the vertical dimension, the horizontal size is the "width." ... These service ribbons originated with the British about the time of the Crimean War. Lapel buttons are used with civilian clothes for the same purpose.

Are these regulation height's still correct? (I know the American is, exept for Army unit citations) If so I can add this source and thus we've also got a single sentence on history.

This is from:

Gecko G (talk) 02:45, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
 * This has always bothered me that there is a group that insists on making all service ribbons to the same dimensions, whether they are correct or not. EricSerge (talk) 16:06, 17 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I realize this is an old message, but I gotta ask: "why?" If they are all different sizes then they won't lineup properly and it looks like a kid cobbled together a Halloween costume rather than a sharp, professional uniform.
 * The only time it should even come up is with awarding's across countries (or cross branches in the one case of the US Army and unit awards). In all such cases the service member is not under the uniform regulations of the awarding entity, but rather their own country/branch.
 * Gecko G (talk) 20:58, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 24 April 2017

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: No consensus. Unfortunately no one commented on User:Necrothesp's counter proposal. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:16, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Service ribbon → Ribbon bar – More general term (with distinguishing additional wording "bar"). Not all ribbon bars are really from "service". See for instance notable ribbon bars of orders. Chicbyaccident (talk) 08:42, 24 April 2017 (UTC)


 * As before, I think service ribbon is more WP:COMMONNAME compared to ribbon bar. Granted, not all ribbons are necessarily from "service", but using the term ribbon bar has two unintended effects.  First, it may be referring to the cloth ribbon itself, or it may be referring to the metal bars that the ribbons are affixed to, which are in turn pinned to a jacket or formal clothing.  Secondly, if you Google search for ribbon bar, the term is simultaneously in common use for referring to the graphical control element in a lot of software today (for example, the "ribbon bar" at the top of Microsoft Word and other office programs).  Conversely, if you Google search for service ribbon, all entries that come up are referring to the ribbons at issue.  Also, historically, if you look at the preceding talk page section above, Gecko G's source from 1921 specifically refers to them as "service ribbons", which was almost a century ago.  Just my two cents.  Regards, AzureCitizen (talk) 20:47, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Move to Medal ribbon. I don't know if this is an ENGVAR issue, but to me (as a British person) service ribbons mean only the ribbons of service medals (i.e. medals awarded for service in a particular campaign to all who qualify). They do not include ribbons for honours, gallantry medals, commemorative medals, etc. "Medal ribbon", on the other hand, which is currently a redirect here, covers all of these and is a term that would be understood everywhere. It's certainly the common term in the UK and Commonwealth and it also appears to be commonly used in the United States. The "ribbon bar" is the whole assemblage of ribbons worn and does not refer to individual ribbons. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:29, 28 April 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Requested move 4 November 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: Moved to "Medal ribbon" and "Rosette (award)". (non-admin closure) Cwmhiraeth (talk) 13:25, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

– WP:PRECISE. As proposed above on this talk page (in nomination by this same user under former username). Medal ribbon is what the article primarly deals with. Echoing this, actual ribbon rosette is what precurrent Ribbon (award) primarly seems to cover. While at it, Ribbon (award) should then probably redirect to Medal ribbon per WP:PRIMARYREDIRECT of the former article name. PPEMES (talk) 21:57, 4 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Service ribbon → Medal ribbon
 * Ribbon (award) → Ribbon rosette
 * Support first and redirect. This is possibly an ENGVAR issue (as I said above), but in the Commonwealth a service ribbon is awarded to anyone who meets certain criteria (e.g. serves in a certain campaign or for a certain number of years). A medal ribbon covers any ribbon worn the left breast of a uniform, including service ribbons as well as those for gallantry and meritorious service. It's a broader category. And that's what this article is concerned with. Given its international scope, it should be moved to the broader term which is understood everywhere (including the USA). Not sure about second. Should certainly be moved, but I'm not sure what to. Rosette (award), maybe, as that's primarily what it's about and for which it's certainly the primary topic. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:39, 6 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I'd support Rosette (award). PPEMES (talk) 14:03, 11 November 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

U.S. federal uniformed services
Am I misreading the text, or is there a contradiction in regards to the U.S. Navy? In regard to this branch, it reads:
 * In the U.S. Navy, they are worn in rows of three with no staggering or spacing between rows (with the exception of the top row, which may be staggered to the wearer's left if covered by a lapel).

But immediately following, it states:
 * For U.S. Navy members who have three or more ribbons, they can elect to wear only their three highest-ranked ones instead of all of them and if their top three ribbons are obscured by a lapel, they can stagger the top row.

So, does this mean that U.S. Navy members are allowed only one row of three ribbons with redundant wording, or they can wear multiple rows but each is limited to their top three ribbons for each row, or is one of the entries actually supposed to say U.S. Air Force? &#8212;&#160;CJDOS,&#160;Sheridan,&#160;OR&#160;(talk) 09:10, 28 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Looks like I missed several years worth of discussions on here, but jumping in now. I see that bit is not even in the article anymore, but I'll answer just in case you are still curious-
 * In the US Navy, my understanding is that IF you have 4 or more ribbons in your "rack", then you have the option of either wearing ONLY the three highest precedence ribbons, or of wearing ALL of them. If the later, you may need to stagger the top row(s) if the lapel is in the way. The Navy is the only US branch that gives this option.
 * Hope that clarifies, and sorry for the late response.
 * Gecko G (talk) 20:47, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Nazi Germany
The German ribbon as shown is wrong in the way that before 1945, their ribbons were about square and arranged in only one single row, cf. period photos like this one. Wschroedter (talk) 11:16, 16 January 2023 (UTC)