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Permalink Reply by Russ on November 28, 2010 at 2:00am

you have a varity of sources and definitions available from various badge sellers and large northeast uniform store. to get a feel for what is out there i suggest you check out the website of a business called SOMES unifomrs. they have a nice website and selection.

i started a commendation bar system when i was a Vol fd president. one of the biggest problems was folks that wanted them for everything. i made the mistake of allowing people to be nominated for any act thought to be worthy. it then became political. people were being nominated for routine things so in the end i stopped the entire project and re started it with bars for years of service. a red bar is awarded for 5 years of service and a silver star is added every 5 years for a max of 3=20 years. At 25 the color changes to a gold bar with a silver star for ever 5 years for a max of 35 (nobody has hit that yet).

FF of the year (red-white-red), officer of the year (yellow-red-yellow), meritorious service( green-white-blue), group or unit citation (blue-red-blue), emt or paramedic of the year (green-white), lifesaving, (red-white), medal of valor (blue backround with gold stars)

good luck

i earned a couple but that was that and i could care less if i got them or not. i loved the job and was proud to do it. the man upstairs has whatever i earned in life waiting for me

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on November 28, 2010 at 6:59am

There is no standard scheme for awarding medals or commendation bars in the U.S. Each department either has their own system or doesn't give this type of awards.

There are some general guidelines from the award manufacturers, but each of those companies uses their own system.

There's also the eventuality that some of these companies may go out of business, leaving you hanging for future awards if another company can't make a specific commendation bar color pattern. I recommend a basis one-color or two-color bar for each award you choose, as those will tend to stay in production by more than one award manufacturer.

The other thing you need to do is to research the military commendation bar ribbon colors and to make sure that you don't accidentally copy one of the military color schemes. Those are reserved exclusively for the militery personnel who have earned the right to wear them.

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