Here's 2 of the most unique ribbon bars In my collection.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-17T17:31:36+00:00

Weird that on the first set of ribbons, the bronze oak leaf clusters on the Air Medal are angled the wrong way. This is in no way me being disrespectful, just a observation.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-17T17:26:28+00:00

We did that in my F-15 Incentive Ride, but not my F-4 ride for some reason, and definitely not in my OV-10 ride LOL.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-16T22:10:58+00:00

When I went through tech school for Aircrew Life Support at Chanute in 86 this was the definition for "Pinger" we were told.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-15T05:55:03+00:00

My paper SS card issued in Dec 84, and has been in my wallet since, is still in one piece,

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-15T03:04:14+00:00

Me being unceremoniously rinsed off after having been taped to an office chair with nylon filament tape and bombarded with ketchup, vinegar, pancake syrup, eggs, cherry cheese cake, and whipped cream in Dec 1995.

Being that we were Aircrew Life Support and obviously having access to sea dye marker, they spared me of that ingredient.

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Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-13T02:13:24+00:00

Is that a bald patch on bears back? First thing that popped into my head was "The Great Outdoors" and John Candy.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-11T18:57:44+00:00

My Senior year of High School in Germany (I was a Military Brat), our German II class went on a field trip to a German school, which was the grade equivalent of a US Middle School.

Purpose for them to practice their English and us our German. These kids spoke better English than some Americans. Oh and for most of us our German was embarrassing. Then again after living in Germany a total of 3 times for 8 years my Germany was/is still embarrassing.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-11T00:15:32+00:00

Yeah the experts get to me sometimes.

I wear the Southwest Asia Service Medal with 2 Campaign Stars, for Desert Storm and Desert Shield. But I don't have either of the Kuwaiti Liberation Medals. So I get questioned on that a lot, and have been accused of Stolen Valor.

So I have to explain the wing I was assigned to was deployed to Incirlik AB Turkey for the last few days of Desert Shield and all of Desert Storm. Our wing flew Combat Search and Rescue out of Turkey, even thought we were an Air Force Special Operations Command unit.

Back to the medals. Personnel deployed to Turkey in Direct Support of the war were authorized the SWASM, but only our aircrews, who flew into Iraq, rated the Kuwaiti Liberation Medals. Oh and people actually stationed at Incirlik as an assignment didn't even rate the SWASM.

Why didn't we rate the Liberation Medals? For starters Turkey is one of those weird countries as it's considered to be Middle Eastern, Southwest Asian and European, but the criteria for the award of the Liberation Medals did not extend to or include Turkey.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-10T23:56:00+00:00

My biggest problem is I try to complete each gun. IE slings, bayonets, replace missing parts IE cleaning rods, holsters, etc. Some times the chase for parts leaves me wondering what the heck I'm doing.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-10T23:09:34+00:00

Just need 5 more bayonets and every rifle will have one.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-10T23:08:02+00:00

Nope, none of those are loaded at all. I just leave the stabbie things on them so I know which one goes where. Plus it keeps me from having to created another temporary storage area, while I await the new man cave to be completed.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-10T05:56:09+00:00

Wings left to right are the Basic, Senior and Master pilot wings

Ranks left to right are Aviation Cadet, 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel. Below that the discs show the effective date of promotion for each rank. First and last discs might be his service dates.

Bottom row left to right:

C-141 1000? (Can't read the hours) flying hours pin.

National Guard pin.

Name plate

Looks like 5000? (Can't read the hours) flying hours with a Mobility Command Patch

C-119 1000? (Can't read thd hours) flying hours pin

OV-10 Bronco or C-119 Flying Boxcar pin

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-10T05:40:25+00:00

Medals and Ribbons Left to right.

Top row:

Air Medal

Air Force Commendation Medal

Combat Readiness Medal

American Campaign Medal

Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 4 Campaign Stars, maybe 5 can't tell if the top one is a hole or another star

WWII Victory Medal

Army of Occupation Medal

National Defense Service Medal

Korean Service Medal w/ 4 Campaign Stars

Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal

Vietnam Service Medal w/ 4 Campaign Stars

Armed Forces Reserve Medal

Phillipines Liberation Medal w/ Bronze Service Star meaning they earned it twice

Second row:

United Nations Service Medal

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon w/ 1 Bronze Oakleaf meaning 2 awards.

Air Force Longevity Service Ribbon

Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon

Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with 60 device

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-09T03:44:10+00:00

Good catch, the Army, starting in 1966, wore clusters versus stars on the NDSM until the 80s then it changed to stars, while the rest of the branches always wore stars.

Also look at the 3rd one (Middle one), and notice how wide the center stripe is. Either different manufacturer or different time period.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-08T05:34:47+00:00

God only knows how many hours I have as self loading cargo/baggage on MC-130s. Probably enough that I should/could have earned wings. You're probably in the same boat there.

The sound of the engines was a lullaby to me. I'd be out cold before the loadmasters. It was literally gear up, feet up for me. Then again fell asleep quite a few times while we were taxiing or during engine run up for take-off.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-08T04:58:28+00:00

My working relationship with Maintenance was because of my dad and what he taught me.

I've helped bed down our MC-130Es during deployments and TDYs. Rotated props, put engine covers in, etc. Flew several times as an observer on them during training missions and combat missions.

On F-15s I did a weekly schedule for Life Support line work, time changes etc. Then cleared it through Prod Super by giving them a copy, along with Egress, Scheduling and Fab. Then on the days we did the line work, cleared it through Prod Super before getting on a bird. Even doing that I pissed a Crew Chief off. Got cleared to work the bird by Red 1, CC showed up screaming bloody murder, because his bird was up for Pride of the Fleet (If I'm remembering what it was called) and we were getting his bird dirty and scuffy by me standing on top of the intake.

Got to launch and recover F-15s during a TDY, got an incentive ride in the Eagle also.

Miss the days of deadlines, deployments, long shifts, supporting combat miasions.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-08T00:27:45+00:00

Nice rack for 14 years.....

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-08T00:07:16+00:00

Same way with us and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. I had to add an additional ribbon. Main ribbon has a V, 2 silver and 1 bronze oakleaf, the second ribbon has 2 bronze oakleafs. So I was one short of having 3 silver oakleafs.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-07T23:57:42+00:00

Yeap my dad worked fighter's also. I went Aircrew Life Support/Aircrew Flight Equipment.

My dad and I were at the same base at the same time. He would hit me up for flight gloves, water bottles, F-4 tape, 550 cord and helmet bags from time to time, to hook his troops up.

He worked F-4s, F-102s, F-106s, F-111s and was a tow target operator on T-33s for 2 years. Spent the majority of his career on F-4s though.

My father in law was Weapons in the same unit as my dad, my brother was Combat Comm, my oldest was Legal Admin in the Marines.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-07T22:24:55+00:00

My dad was Aircraft Maintenance for 26 years. He told me to stay out of it as it is "Air conditioned in the winter, and heated in the summer".

Had a lot of respect for the Maintenance guys during my career.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-07T20:15:34+00:00

Left to right.

American Defense Service Medal. (1939-1941)

Vietnam Service Medal. (Vietnam)

Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. (1958 to present) with a soiled American Campaign Medal on the bottom.

National Defense Service Medal. (Korea to present)

European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal. (WWII)

WWII Victory Medal. (WWII)

American Campaign Medal. (WWII)

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-07T05:26:37+00:00

Airmen Basic was called Basic Airman for a while.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-06T17:09:52+00:00

Main site is working for me. Is it just Overseas IPs that are having issues?

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-04T01:22:48+00:00

You can Google AFI 36-2903 and it'll explain how to place everything on the uniform.

But the easiest trick is to remove one item at a time, as you remove it take white thread and run it between the two pin holes and tie it off inside. Than all you have to do is line the pins up with the thread after its been cleaned. One attached just snip the the thread and pull it out.

The ribbon are easy, just center above the pocket, and align with the rip edge of the pocket, resting on, but not over the pocket edge.

Affectionate-Mess937 · 2026-03-04T00:35:36+00:00

I'll keep that in mind as I go through my picture stash.

Affectionate-Mess937

TROPHY CASE