Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medal

The Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medal was authorized by the Navy in 1962 and they provided for the retroactive presentation of these new medals of America for qualifying service during any period of time back to the year 1958. These Navy medals were considered the replacement for the Naval Reserve Medal, and required 4 years of satisfactory reserve service until 1996. Then the requirement for these Navy ribbons and medals was lowered to three years of honorable service. There must be no disciplinary action during the service time, and active duty time is not counted toward the time required. These US military medals and ribbons are only awarded to enlisted soldiers and not intended for officers. The Armed Forces Reserve Medal is a similar decoration which is available for both officers and enlisted personnel to reward ten years of honorable reserve service.
The primary difference between the Navy’s active duty Good Conduct Medal and The Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medal lies in applicability from time spent in active versus reserve duty. The Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medal is Medal is positioned below the active duty Good Conduct Medal, and occupies the bottom position in the general order of precedence that has been established to govern the proper display of all military ribbons and medals. Additional awards of these Navy decorations are denoted by silver or gold Service Stars.

These Navy awards are available as Navy medals, ribbons and lapel pins to name the three most common forms for uniform wear. They can be worn as traditional slide-on medals, mini medals and ribbons, or the newer thin mini-medals, and ultra thin military ribbons that have gained such wide-spread acclaim from military personnel who recognize the value to their career advancement of always maximizing the smartness of their uniform appearance.