Wear of Unit Citation

[jb512]

I'm sure this has come up before, but I didn't find any threads on it, so I'll start up this one.

A unit is awarded a Unit Citation.  All members of the unit named in the order in the period for which it was issued can wear the award permanently.  That is about the only clear language of the paragraph and is straight forward:

http://level2.cap.gov/documents/u_082203104145.pdf

It says that all members of a unit which has been awarded the Unit Citation can wear it, but we've had some of our members being told at places outside of the squadron that they can only wear the ribbon if they were in it when it was awarded.  The regulation clearly states the criteria for permenant wear, but the wording isn't as specific for temporary wear while in the unit and has lead to confusion.  Anyone else had issues with this?

[Major Carrales]

The practice has been for people to wear it if they were in an inclusive "time frame."  Thus, the order that was cut would say that members of a given unit could wear the award if they were members of that unit from thus date to thus date.

[MIKE]

5. Eligibility. A member must be in good standing at
the time of the distinguished act and must meet the
criteria established for the award. All award
recommendations must be submitted within 2 years of the
termination date of the act, achievement, or service
performed. Next of kin of deceased persons are entitled
to receive awards earned but not presented.

Edit: There used to be a very good Knowledgebase answer on this very subject, but it now appears to be mysteriously missing. 

[jb512]

The practice has been for people to wear it if they were in an inclusive "time frame."  Thus, the order that was cut would say that members of a given unit could wear the award if they were members of that unit from thus date to thus date.

Can you point me to that reference please?  I've been searching and have yet to uncover it.

[jb512]

5. Eligibility. A member must be in good standing at
the time of the distinguished act and must meet the
criteria established for the award. All award
recommendations must be submitted within 2 years of the
termination date of the act, achievement, or service
performed. Next of kin of deceased persons are entitled
to receive awards earned but not presented.

Edit: There used to be a very good Knowledgebase answer on this very subject, but it now appears to be mysteriously missing. 

I noticed that too.  I remember that answer and it's quite interesting that it's gone now.  As I remember, the poster was also saying that the member could only wear the award if it was permanent.

[Major Carrales]

Can you point me to that reference please?  I've been searching and have yet to uncover it.

See MIKE's above post...

[CAPOfficer]

5. Eligibility. A member must be in good standing at
the time of the distinguished act and must meet the
criteria established for the award. All award
recommendations must be submitted within 2 years of the
termination date of the act, achievement, or service
performed. Next of kin of deceased persons are entitled
to receive awards earned but not presented.

Edit: There used to be a very good Knowledgebase answer on this very subject, but it now appears to be mysteriously missing. 

I noticed that too.  I remember that answer and it's quite interesting that it's gone now.  As I remember, the poster was also saying that the member could only wear the award if it was permanent.

It just happens that I copied that Knowledge Base Question sometime ago; here it is in full.

Wear of the unit citation ribbon

Question

I have a question about the award of unit citation ribbons, and whether there was such a thing as a "temporary" award. Basically, if a new cadet joins a squadron that has one unit citation award, a wing that has 4, and a region that has 2, does he have the right to wear the unit citation award with a silver and bronze clasp? Is he "temporarily" allowed to wear this award, while a member of the unit? Several members quoted several different sections of CAPR 39-3 for me, and I'm not sure how to interpret it.

Answer

The Unit Citation Ribbon may be worn permanently by all individuals who were members of the unit during any portion of the period of time shown in the National Headquarters Personnel Action announcing the award. New members such as the new cadet mentioned who join after the period of time specified for the award are not eligible to wear the unit citation ribbon previously awarded.

Unit awards are intended to be worn by members of the unit who were assigned during the period specified in the award. Allowing new members to wear the award "temporarily" while assigned to the unit in not in accordance with the intent of Paragraph 5 of CAP REGULATION 39-3 (E) AWARD OF CAP MEDALS, RIBBONS, AND CERTIFICATES, "A member must be in good standing at the time of the distinguished act and must meet the criteria established for the award," or the equivalent Air Force Instruction 36-2803 (see Paragraph 4.2 below).

CAP REGULATION 39-3 (E) AWARD OF CAP MEDALS, RIBBONS, AND CERTIFICATES
5. Eligibility. A member must be in good standing at the time of the distinguished act and must meet the criteria established for the award. All award recommendations must be submitted within 2 years of the termination date of the act, achievement, or service performed. Next of kin of deceased persons are entitled to receive awards earned but not presented.

AFI 36-2803 THE AIR FORCE AWARDS AND DECORATIONS PROGRAM 15 Jun 2001

Chapter 4 UNITED STATES UNIT AND ORGANIZATIONAL AWARDS
4.2. Individual Entitlement. All assigned or attached people who served with a unit during a period for which a unit award was awarded are authorized the appropriate ribbon if they directly contributed to the mission and accomplishments of the unit.

Also see Paragraph 12 of CAP REGULATION 39-3 (below) for unit citation procedures.

Paragraph 12. Award Elements:
a. At the time National Headquarters announces an award, it will forward the appropriate award elements to the proper region or wing commander for presentation to the individual concerned.
b. When region commanders announce an award, they will present the appropriate award elements, or forward them to the proper wing commander for presentation to the individual concerned.
c. Award elements consist of:
(1) The medal and/or ribbon of the decoration in question and the certificate that accompanies the decoration to individuals.
(2) Only one Unit Citation Award certificate and streamer will be presented to the unit receiving the award. For example, if an entire group (rather than just the group headquarters) receives the Unit Citation Award, the certificate and streamer will be displayed at group headquarters only; however, all members of the group headquarters and squadrons within that group are authorized to wear the Unit Citation Ribbon. The members of each unit which receive the Unit Citation Award are authorized to wear the Unit Citation Ribbon. This ribbon is not furnished by National Headquarters, but may be purchased from the CAP Bookstore or commercial sources. The Unit Citation Ribbon may be worn permanently by all individuals who were members of the unit during any portion of the period of time shown in the National Headquarters Personnel Action announcing the award. Unit commanders will post the members' records to show their eligibility to wear the ribbon.

Although the color fonts had to be added, they are the same color as was shown in the original information.

[jb512]

That answers my question.  Thank you.

Quotes sniped - MIKE

[mdickinson]

Wow, the KB answer posted by user CAPofficer blows my mind.

The way unit citation wear has always been done in my wing (let's call it method A) is:

"Well, the region has been awarded two, and the wing has been awarded three... so if your group or squadron has been awarded one, you wear six (ribbon plus silver clasp). If not, you wear five (ribbon plus four bronze clasps)."

In fact, we even had a wing commander research the number of UC's received by the region on the wing, and issue a policy letter informing everyone in the wing of the base number of clasps everyone should be wearing.

The KB answer seems to be saying something entirely different (method B): "you wear only citations that have been awarded to the unit you were in at the time of the award." So you would only wear multiple citations if you personally have been a member of units that received those citations while you were a member.

Question 1: If I am reading the (former) Knowledgebase answer correctly, then Method A is completely wrong. Is my reading of the KB article correct?

Question 2: Of those of you reading this, how many have been using method A (wear the total number ever awarded to your region/wing/group/squadron), and how many have been using method B (wear only ones that were awarded while you were in the unit)?

If method B is correct, then the vast majority of us around here should be wearing only the bare ribbon - since a unit citation was awarded to the entire region as of 9/11/2001. I haven't heard of

Question 3: If I think I remember a unit citation being awarded to a unit I was in five or ten years ago, is there some national registry of UC's that I could check to be sure?

[MattPHS2002]

That begs the question then, why was I given a UC when I got my Curry, I most likely didn't even know about CAP or probably wasn't even born when the orders were cut.

[RiverAux]

Personally, I would feel pretty stupid wearing an award that I wasn't around for when it was earned.  I agree with the KB on the way it should be. 

[DeputyDog]

Question 1: If I am reading the (former) Knowledgebase answer correctly, then Method A is completely wrong. Is my reading of the KB article correct?

Yes.

Question 2: Of those of you reading this, how many have been using method A (wear the total number ever awarded to your region/wing/group/squadron), and how many have been using method B (wear only ones that were awarded while you were in the unit)?

I used Method A for years. Then I read that Knowledgebase answer after another senior member (officer) pointed out that Method A was incorrect. I now use Method B. What I have been doing is having the member wearing the Unit Citation Award incorrectly just remove it when they receive a new award.

My recent push of having senior member (officers) complete the Yeager in my group has been helping with that. 

Question 3: If I think I remember a unit citation being awarded to a unit I was in five or ten years ago, is there some national registry of UC's that I could check to be sure?

Not that I know of. I think the only way to make sure you are wearing the correct number of Unit Citations was to have a personnel officer who was on the ball and had the correct paperwork in your personnel file.

Backtracking through CAP paperwork from a decade or more ago is a nightmare. A national registry would be a good idea.

[MIKE]

They used to get published in the CAP News.

[AlphaSigOU]

Way back WIWAC CAPM 39-3 used to follow the then-Army way of wearing unit citations. Not by wearing them on the right pocket, but by following Method A described above. If you were a member of a particular regiment, you wore that regiment's unit honors. When you left that unit, off came the unit awards, unless you earned one for permanent wear during your tour.

Only Unit Citations I wear that I can document are those that were earned in Florida Wing as a cadet (two), and I'm getting clarification on a third that was recently awarded to all of Texas Wing for firewatch duty last year.

Unit Citation awards, as Mike said, used to be published in the old CAP fishwrapper - ahem, CAP News. Along with Mitchells and Earharts. Spaatzen got the full article treatment.

[jb512]

Way back WIWAC CAPM 39-3 used to follow the then-Army way of wearing unit citations. Not by wearing them on the right pocket, but by following Method A described above. If you were a member of a particular regiment, you wore that regiment's unit honors. When you left that unit, off came the unit awards, unless you earned one for permanent wear during your tour.

Only Unit Citations I wear that I can document are those that were earned in Florida Wing as a cadet (two), and I'm getting clarification on a third that was recently awarded to all of Texas Wing for firewatch duty last year.

Unit Citation awards, as Mike said, used to be published in the old CAP fishwrapper - ahem, CAP News. Along with Mitchells and Earharts. Spaatzen got the full article treatment.

And that's how we used to do it too back then, but it makes sense to only wear the ones that are permenant for you.  Otherwise people would have triangles all over the place.

Any suggestions from anyone on researching one issued to an overseas unit (Ft. Clayton, Panama) back around 1991?   

[brasda91]

The way our squadron has always done it, was that all members of the squadron was allowed to wear the UC because the UNIT has been awarded UC's.  It didn't matter how many UC's were in the state.  When that member left our unit through a transfer, if the new unit they went to, had not received any UC's then they would have to take the UC off.  Guess I need to read the regs again.  Hmm.

[SarDragon]

There are some records at NHQ, but they don't seem to be very organized, and you need to have a pretty definite time frame for them to check. I called a while back, and they couldn't find the one I was looking for, but managed to find it on the NER site.

You might also check with Wing Admin to see if they have PAs in their records. The last one I received also had the instance of the award (second, third, etc) on the PA. This one happened to be from NHQ for wing level UCAs.

[RiverAux]

More than likely your best bet is just to start looking at the streamers on wing flags, plaques on the wall, etc.  For an organization that actually has a historical program, CAP isn't very good at recording things. 

[Hawk200]

Otherwise people would have triangles all over the place.

I just loved running into an A1C cadet at encampment, and he's wearing a Unit Citation with two silver and a bronze attachement. I would usually laugh (I know, not appropriate), and explain to them why it was funny.

For an organization that actually has a historical program, CAP isn't very good at recording things. 

Amen, brother.