A medal ribbon, service ribbon, or ribbon bar is a small ribbon, mounted on a small metal bar equipped with an attaching device, which is generally issued for wear in place of a medal when it is not appropriate to wear the actual medal. Each country's government has its own rules on what ribbons can be worn in what circumstances and in which order. This is usually defined in an official document and is called "the order of precedence" or "the order of wearing." In some countries (particularly in North America and Israel), some awards are "ribbon only," having no associated medal.
Design
According to the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the U.S. military's standard size for a ribbon bar is wide, tall, with a thickness of 0.8 mm.
The service ribbon for a specific medal is usually identical to the suspension ribbon on the medal. For example, the suspension and service ribbon for the U.S. government's Purple Heart medal is purple with a white vertical stripe at each end (see photo).
However, there are some military awards that do not have a suspension ribbon, but have an authorized ribbon and unit award emblem. The Soviet Order of Victory is a badge that was worn on the military parade uniform. However, a ribbon bar representing the Order of Victory was worn on a military field uniform.
Colors
Ribbon bars come in a variety of colors. In the case of the U.S. government, it maintains a specific list of colors used on its ribbons, based on the Pantone Matching System and Federal Standard 595 color systems:
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align: right"
! colspan="4" |Colors used on U.S. military ribbons
|-
! data-sort-type="number" |Name