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Commendation Bars
Does your department wear commendation bars (ribbons) on their Class A uniforms? I have been doing some research and have found a couple departments that do and they have different ribbons? What does your department use and what do they represent? Thanks
Darin
Darin
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jason Brooks on
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It appears that my vollie department is considering this now. From what I have gathered, they are looking at the following bars:
Year of service
EMS
Firefighter of the Year
Officer of the Year
We have three different awards named after past Chiefs
Valor, not sure how this will work
and maybe more
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Permalink Reply by Tiger Schmittendorf on
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I never thought of that. That's a great idea Champ!
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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We're a bit different to most of you, in that we're a state-wide Fire/Rescue Service.
We are entitled to wear, on our dress uniform, medals/decorations awarded by the Federal Government. This includes Military service medals and valor/gallantry awards. These are worn over the left breast pocket. The FRS also has it's own awards and these are worn over the right breast pocket. The rules for wearing medals come from our national government. My own Brigade has a simple colour bar to indicate six years service in our own Brigade, this is worn on the right breast until the person receives the 12 Years Service medal from the FRS itself. For valour, we are entitled to be reccomended for the same awards given to members of the Defence Force. These last are very rare, most deeds the public might consider worthy of a medal are simply part of our duties!
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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This seems to be an East Coast type of thing. I can't recall ever seeing them out here.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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Around my way it appears to be a local option. We have both commendaton bars and ribbon/medals. The commendation bars are worn on our button down station uniform. We wear the ribbon/medals on our department issued Class A uniform.
As for years of service medals, we do not issue them, we have engraved name tags with the add-on, "Serving Since ___" below our name from Blackington.
The only medals we offer are, Lifesaving Award, Medal of Valor, and Exceptional Service Award. We have a committee that reviews the past years calls, that were submitted by an officer. They decide via policy (we have criteria for each of the above) and they decide if it is commendable.
Lifesaving Award is obviously for a successful rescue under extreme danger to one's self or company. Medal of Valor is for the same criteria except the victim did not survive but the person or company performed above and beyond, etc.
We used to have awards come just from the Chief and it was to be honest, a joke at the time, assisting a person off the front stoop of a routine job is not a grab??? So after the worker bees stopped going to the annual awards banquet it was heard that the organization needed to form a committee, and together make the awards accurate and commendable.
We do not offer lifesaving awards for an ems call, (Ie. code saves) the awards are fire-rescue based (but we do run ALS buses) I personally think they need to be identified but we also do not need most of our firefighter/emt's walking around looking like a 4-star General either.
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I'm with you on your last sentence! Too many ribbons/medals devalues them. As I said, valour awards are rare. Service awards are given, but not overdone even for our military. For instance, service in Iraq earns one medal denoting service in a war zone, with a small metal clip saying 'Iraq'; if that person then serves in Afghanistan they'll get a second clip, but not an extra medal.
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Years of service awards are stars on the name plate. 1 star for every 5 years of service.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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I brought it up at my department and.... well I brought it up at my department.
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Permalink Reply by Bill McMaster on
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Test
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Permalink Reply by Wade Seely on
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My department has commendation bars for life saving situations where the ff went above and beyond. They are handed out very selectively and only three or four currently on the dept have recieved them. Our's are a red bar with a star, and if your have more than one save it adds a star every time.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Test
Test passed, you may proceed.
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Permalink Reply by Russ on
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my county issues them and its a county wide thing through the chiefs association. they are issued for years of service, FF, officer, rookie of the year, lifesaving, unit citation, meritourious service. i have suggested that there be an injury award like a purple heart.
on a personal note i attempted to create a program before the chiefs assoc when i was president of the FF's assoc and it immidieaitatly became political. people began to want them for "routine" things. i tried to convince them that if you start handing out awards for BS, they wont mean anything. in the end i scrapped the idea. like someone else posted, it is somewhat a northeast thing, but i have seen them in other places. assuming the award is legit, i am for issuing them but there are medal whores out there that reduce the meaning and intent. anyone who chases medals is gonna get themselves or someome around them killed
an awards program is supposoed to reflect something
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