Sorting Army medals looks simple until they’re actually spread out on the kitchen table. Awards from different decades, ribbons that look nearly identical, a loose metal oak leaf cluster with no obvious home. It’s a lot, especially when the medals belong to a parent, spouse, or grandparent, and you want to get every detail right.
The good news is that one rule does most of the heavy lifting:
Army medals and ribbons are arranged from highest to lowest in order of precedence.
On the uniform, the highest award sits on the top row, closest to the heart. From the viewer’s perspective, that puts it at the top left. A military medal shadow box follows the same convention, and once the medals are sorted, the rest of the display tends to fall into place.
Below, you’ll find the full Army order of precedence, the placement rules that trip people up most, and how to turn a sorted collection into a display worth handing down.
What Does Army Order of Precedence Mean?
Order of precedence is the Army’s official ranking of its awards. It determines where every ribbon and medal sits on the uniform, from the Medal of Honor all the way down to service ribbons, and it gives you a dependable roadmap for a display.
The rankings come from two official references: Army Regulation 600-8-22, Military Awards, and Department of the Army Pamphlet 670-1, Guide to the Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia. You don’t need to read either one cover to cover, but if a specific award has you second-guessing, that’s where the answer lives.
A shadow box doesn’t have to recreate the uniform exactly, but following the official order helps make sure each award is displayed where it belongs.
Army Medals in Order of Precedence
U.S. Personal Decorations
Personal decorations come first, ranked from highest to lowest. You’ll notice Department of Defense decorations mixed in with Army awards on this list, because soldiers who served in joint assignments may have earned them.
- Medal of Honor
- Distinguished Service Cross
- Defense Distinguished Service Medal
- Distinguished Service Medal
- Silver Star
- Defense Superior Service Medal
- Legion of Merit
- Distinguished Flying Cross
- Soldier’s Medal
- Bronze Star Medal
- Purple Heart
- Defense Meritorious Service Medal
- Meritorious Service Medal
- Air Medal
- Joint Service Commendation Medal
- Army Commendation Medal
- Joint Service Achievement Medal
- Army Achievement Medal
U.S. Unit Awards
Unit awards recognize what an entire unit accomplished together rather than an individual achievement. On the uniform, they’re worn on the right side. In a shadow box, keeping them grouped together helps the display stay easy to read.
- Presidential Unit Citation
- Joint Meritorious Unit Award
- Valorous Unit Award
- Meritorious Unit Commendation
- Army Superior Unit Award
U.S. Service and Campaign Medals
Service and campaign medals come after personal decorations and unit awards. In order of precedence:
- Prisoner of War Medal
- Army Good Conduct Medal
- Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal
- Historical campaign medals (World War I, World War II, and other earlier conflicts, placed here in their own established order)
- National Defense Service Medal
- Korean Service Medal
- Antarctica Service Medal
- Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
- Vietnam Service Medal
- Southwest Asia Service Medal
- Kosovo Campaign Medal
- Afghanistan Campaign Medal
- Iraq Campaign Medal
- Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal
- Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
- Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
- Korea Defense Service Medal
- Mexican Border Defense Medal
- Armed Forces Service Medal
- Humanitarian Service Medal
- Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal
- Army Sea Duty Ribbon
- Armed Forces Reserve Medal
U.S. Service Ribbons
Army service ribbons follow the medals above, in this order:
- Army Recruiting Ribbon
- NCO Professional Development Ribbon
- Army Service Ribbon
- Army Overseas Service Ribbon
- Army Reserve Components Overseas Training Ribbon
Foreign Decorations and Awards
Foreign decorations generally come after U.S. awards and are arranged in the order they were received. Foreign unit awards, such as the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation and the Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation, stay grouped with unit awards, directly after the U.S. unit awards.
Non-U.S. service awards have their own established order:
- Philippine Defense Ribbon
- Philippine Liberation Ribbon
- Philippine Independence Ribbon
- United Nations Service Medal
- Inter-American Defense Board Medal
- United Nations Medal
- NATO Medal
- Multinational Force and Observers Medal
- Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
- Kuwait Liberation Medal, Saudi Arabia
- Kuwait Liberation Medal, Kuwait
- Republic of Korea War Service Medal
Army Medal Placement Rules That Are Easy to Miss
Even with the full list in front of you, a few awards cause more confusion than the rest.
The Purple Heart comes after the Bronze Star Medal. Its significance leads many families to place the Purple Heart near the top of a display, but the official order puts the Bronze Star ahead of it.
The Army Good Conduct Medal comes before campaign medals. If you’re displaying a Good Conduct Medal alongside an Iraq Campaign Medal, the Good Conduct Medal goes first.
The Korean Service Medal and the Korea Defense Service Medal don’t sit together. They sound alike, but they’re separate awards from separate eras. The Korean Service Medal recognizes Korean War service, while the Korea Defense Service Medal recognizes qualifying service in Korea from 1954 on. Several awards separate them in the official order.
Details like these are exactly why it pays to sort every piece before you mount anything.
What Do the Devices on Army Medals Mean?
Look closely at a ribbon or medal and you may find a small attachment. These devices carry part of the story:
- Oak leaf clusters mark additional awards of the same decoration. A bronze cluster stands for one additional award, and a silver cluster stands in for five bronze.
- The “V” device identifies certain awards earned for valor in combat.
- Numerals track additional awards on certain decorations, including the Air Medal.
- Service stars on campaign medals mark participation in specific campaigns.
If a device came attached to the original ribbon or medal, keep the two together. That little piece of brass is part of the award’s history.
How to Arrange Army Medals in a Shadow Box
Sort Everything First
Lay the medals, ribbons, badges, and insignia out on a clean, soft surface, then arrange the medals from highest to lowest.
If you have the service member’s DD-214, keep it beside you while you work. It confirms which awards were earned and can reveal a medal that’s missing from the collection. If something is missing, our guide to replacing lost or stolen military medals walks through how to request an official replacement before you finish the display.
Decide Whether to Display Ribbons, Medals, or Both
Two layouts come up again and again.
Ribbon rack above the medals. Place the ribbon rack toward the top of the display, with the highest-ranking ribbon at the viewer’s top left, then arrange the full-size medals underneath in the same order.
Medals in rows. If you’re displaying medals without a ribbon rack, start at the upper left and work left to right, row by row, highest to lowest.
Whichever layout you choose, arrange the entire collection on the table before mounting a single piece. Sliding medals around beats prying them off a backing board.
Give a Larger Collection Room to Tell the Story
A career’s worth of medals, patches, photos, and insignia rarely fits comfortably in a small frame, and cramming it all in tends to bury the awards themselves.
Our Military Shadow Box for Medals in Walnut gives the full collection room to breathe while keeping the medals organized in their proper order. There’s space for rank insignia, unit patches, name tapes, badges, and photographs without pulling focus from the awards.
What If You Only Have One or Two Medals?
Not every display needs to be big. Sometimes a single medal carries the most meaning of all.
A single medal frame gives one decoration its own place of honor, whether that’s a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, or a campaign medal. Individual frames also work well when a family is dividing military keepsakes. Instead of keeping every medal in one collection, each award can be framed and passed to a different family member.
Keep a Medal and Its Certificate Together
If you still have the award certificate, think twice before separating it from the medal.
The certificate fills in what the medal can’t say on its own: the service member’s name, the date, and the reason the award was presented. A certificate and medal frame keeps the two together, so a grandchild decades from now never has to wonder where the medal came from or what it meant.
For an especially significant decoration, pairing the medal with its original certificate can feel complete all by itself, no oversized shadow box required.
Add a Military Photograph
A photograph changes a military display completely, because it puts a face with the service.
It might be a formal portrait in uniform, a deployment photo, a promotion ceremony, or simply a favorite picture from those years. You can also bring the photograph, certificate, and medal together in one frame, putting the person, the achievement, and the story behind it all in one place.
What Else Can You Include in a Military Display?
Medals may be the starting point, but they rarely tell the whole story on their own. Families often add:
- Rank insignia
- Unit patches
- Name tapes
- Qualification badges
- Service photographs
- Award certificates
- Retirement certificates
- Challenge coins
- Discharge documents
- A folded American flag
No Army regulation dictates how a personal shadow box must be arranged, so there’s real room to make it your own. A good rule of thumb: let the medals stay a focal point instead of squeezing every keepsake into one frame. Sometimes the story is better told across more than one.
Consider a Military Gallery Wall
A career that spans decades doesn’t have to fit inside a single frame.
Pair a medal shadow box with a framed award certificate and a favorite military photograph. Add a flag case or a retirement document if the family has one. Displaying the pieces separately gives each one room to breathe while the wall works together as a whole.
It also leaves you room to grow. Start with the medals and certificates you have today, then add photographs, documents, and other keepsakes as you find them.
How to Mount Medals Without Damaging Them
A few habits protect the collection for the long haul:
- Attach medals by their existing ribbon or mounting hardware whenever possible. Never put anything through the medal itself.
- Choose archival-quality backing materials and UV-protective glass, especially if the display will hang in a room with natural light.
- Resist the urge to polish an older medal. Age, wear, and patina are part of its history, and in most displays those signs of time make the collection more meaningful, not less.
Frequently Asked Questions About Army Medal Order
Does the highest Army medal go on the left or right?
From the viewer’s perspective, the highest-ranking medal goes at the top left of the display. On the service member’s uniform, that same spot corresponds to the wearer’s right, closest to the heart.
Where do foreign medals go?
Foreign decorations are displayed after U.S. awards, in the order they were received. Non-U.S. service medals, including United Nations and NATO medals, follow their own established order of precedence, listed above.
Can you display ribbons and medals for the same award?
Yes. Many shadow boxes place the ribbon rack above the full-size medals, both arranged in the same order of precedence. It’s an especially meaningful layout when the ribbons were part of the service member’s original uniform.
What if I have the award certificate but not the medal?
Display the certificate on its own, or choose a certificate and medal frame that leaves room to add the medal later. You can also request an official replacement medal; our replacement guide covers how.
Do all military medals have to go in one shadow box?
No. A large collection can work beautifully in one shadow box, but meaningful pieces can also be framed individually. Many families place the medals in a shadow box, frame the retirement certificate separately, and hang a portrait beside them as a gallery wall.
Ready to Display Your Army Medals?
Once the order of precedence is confirmed, the last decision is how to preserve the collection.
One important medal may deserve a frame of its own. A medal and its original certificate may belong together. A full career may call for a shadow box with room for ribbons, insignia, and photographs, or several coordinated displays on one wall.
For a collection of multiple Army medals, our Military Shadow Box for Medals in Walnut brings the pieces together while keeping the medals right where they belong: at the center of the display.
Or browse militaryframes.com’s complete collection of Military Medal Frames and Shadow Boxes to find the right fit for the pieces you’re preserving.
Frame the Valor. Honor the Legacy.™
