Military Medals and Awards

By Gerald Whitcombe, military records archivist · Updated 4 June 2026

Military medals and awards recognize a service member's achievements, valor, and years of service, and understanding how they are organized makes it far easier to identify medals, ribbons, and decorations correctly. Whether you are researching a family member's service or organizing your own awards for display, learning the basic order of precedence and the official replacement process is the first step. This guide covers military medals and awards from identification through replacement. See also our guide to military records.

How Military Medals and Awards Are Organized

Military medals and awards fall into several broad categories, including personal valor decorations, service and campaign medals, unit awards, and marksmanship or training badges. Each branch follows a system called order of precedence, which determines the sequence medals and ribbons are worn on a uniform, generally from top personal valor awards down to service and training recognitions.

• Valor and achievement decorations awarded for specific acts or sustained performance
• Campaign and service medals tied to a conflict, era, or duty location
• Unit awards presented to an entire command rather than an individual
• Badges and qualification devices denoting skills or specialties

How to Identify Military Medals

To identify military medals, start with the ribbon design, since color patterns and stripe arrangements are unique to each award within a branch. Many ribbons also use small metal devices, such as service stars or oak leaf clusters, to indicate additional awards of the same decoration.

Official identification resources include each branch's institute of heraldry references and the medal's citation paperwork, which lists the full name and date of the award. Comparing a ribbon to an official regulation chart, rather than general online images alone, gives the most reliable match when learning to identify military medals.

Understanding US Military Ribbons

US military ribbons are the small rectangular fabric representations worn in place of full-size medals on everyday uniforms. Each ribbon corresponds to a specific medal, and the stripe colors, widths, and center pattern are standardized by regulation so they can be reliably matched to their full medal counterpart.

• Full-size medals are typically worn for formal or ceremonial occasions
• Ribbons are the everyday service dress equivalent
• Devices such as stars, clusters, or letters modify the base ribbon design

Requesting Records Through NARA and the NPRC

The National Archives and Records Administration, through the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri, holds official military personnel files for veterans and can help verify which medals and awards were earned during service. Requesting these records is often the necessary first step before pursuing a medal replacement, since the NPRC can confirm entitlement based on the service member's official file.

Requests can be submitted online through the NPRC's eVetRecs system or by mail using Standard Form 180, and next of kin can request records on behalf of a deceased veteran with proper documentation.

How to Replace Military Medals

To replace military medals, veterans or their next of kin generally submit a request to their branch of service's awards office, often supported by discharge paperwork such as the DD Form 214 or records obtained from the NPRC. Replacement requests are typically free of charge for veterans requesting their own earned decorations through official channels.

Processing times vary by branch and by how quickly supporting records can be located, so starting with an NPRC records request first can help avoid delays in a replace military medals request submitted later.

See our main guide to military records, or read about the dd-214 explained and wwii military records.

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