glennw said:
Actually the way the ribbons sit right now is the correct way I am told. The most senior award should be closes to your heart when wearing them on your uniform. Picture the command plaque as the body of a person and the ribbons and awards on the chest. If that makes any sense.
We are both wrong. The Navy specifies that awards without medals are worn on the wearer's right side when full size medals are worn. The order of precedence is "Inboard to outboard". Therefore the order should be (from left to right as you look at the ribbon bar), the Navy "E" Ribbon (the one currently in the middle), The Meritorious Unit Commendation (the one currently on the left), The Joint Meritorious Unit Award (the one with the gold frame around it; is currently in its correct place.)
Where some of the confusion comes in is that the Army specifies that awards worn on the wearer's right side uses the same order of precedence as the left side (Top to bottom wearer's right to left). The Navy specifies the opposite for awards worn on the wearer's right side; which they do for individuals decorations that do not have suspension medals while wearing awards that do have suspension medals.
Obviously, the Army way is mo bettah, since you don't have to think about it, order of precedence is always top to bottom left to right. Unit awards go on the wearer's right, personal awards on the wearer's left. The other services combine both award types when wearing ribbons only. The complication comes in when medals are worn, the awards without suspension medals in the Navy (at least, not sure about the Marines and Air Force) are worn on the other side and must be re-ordered from how they are worn when on the left side. The Army keeps it even simpler, when wearing medals you don't get to wear individual awards without suspension medals. The unit awards that the Army wears on the opposite side may be worn when medals are worn, UNLESS, you are wearing miniature medals...... Now that we have that straight, let's discuss Astrophysics