Posted on Jun 19, 2015
What do you do with your old medals and ribbons?
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I have an annoying assortment of no longer accurate pre-built ribbon and medal racks (I never had patience to build them myself). I don't want to throw them away or sell them because it seems wrong and might contribute to a stolen valor problem, does anyone know of any ribbon rack sites that recycle them somehow or another creative method of disposal/reuse?
EDIT: I am talking about outdated sets of awards after you get more and your old pre-built set is no longer accurate, what do you do with them?
EDIT: I am talking about outdated sets of awards after you get more and your old pre-built set is no longer accurate, what do you do with them?
Awards
Medals
Ribbons
Badges
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 68
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Send them to your local VFW, people do come in asking for parts to complete a rack for a deceased family member and they have no nearby military facility to acquire them. Or Post 5290 in Conyers Georgia we will take em.
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SFC Jim Ruether
I donated many of mine to a local National Guard Unit and they appreciated that very much!
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SGT Ray Davies
I put mine in a glass case with my patches. I showed it to my grandson and then put it up in the closet. I figure he can find some use for it when I'm gone. The only I dug them out was I had an administrator ask what all I had, (On my CV I put awards on request). Really, I needed the ammo can it was stored in.
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SGT Chuck Calalesina
When My Dad passed we took the U.S. Flag that was presented to my Mom and incased the Flag along with all of his medals from WWII. The Flag and my Dad's history in the military are on display in my brothers living room.
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Why not give them to your kids or grandkids, I know my boys were excited when I would give them my military stuff.
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LTC Wayne Brandon
Like you, Sgt Lugo, my father gave me his cast offs when the Army changed uniforms in the mid-fifties. Caps, belts, an MP helmet liner and brassard and I even had my own pair of brown boots from WWII. I was the best dressed kid in the neighborhood when it came time to 'play' Army. It probably had a lot to do with where I ended up and how long I was involved.
You did a good thing for your boys.
You did a good thing for your boys.
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I bag up old ribbons, racks, and rank and take it in to my unit and see who needs it. Ribbons that are replaced because they are soiled/frayed are thrown away in my kitchen garbage. I keep a certain amount of racks, slide bars etc to handle temporary wear unit awards. I retain unit awards to reuse, give to battle buddies if they need them, especially my replacements that will have about the same set up.
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LTC Jason Mackay
I also maintain spares and my different items / configurations in an organized tackle box
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SFC (Join to see)
I cycle them into my unit's supply system. We come down on funeral details a lot, so the supply room is a excellent way to save our guys some hard earned cash.
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LTC Jason Mackay
Van Amberg not really what they were asking in the original post. We’re talking about ribbons, medals etc that you don’t need anymore. Like if you went from 10 ribbons to 11, the prefab rack is obsolete and you get another. You give away the obsolete one. Or you updated your decorations and you have ribbons with the old appurtenances on them that don’t reflect your service record, you could hand them down. By all means you are right to preserve your Father’s decorations in a shadow box.
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