According to the article, Jeremiah Workman, a Marine who received the nations second highest honor, the Navy Cross was watching the Zimmerman trial when, Doris Singleton, a Sanford Police Officer took the stand.
He noticed the ribbon rack she was wearing, and posted it to his facebook page.
“Am I going blind or is this police officer in the Zimmerman -Martin trial wearing ribbons that she doesn’t rate?” he wrote alongside the photo he posted to Facebook.”
Two in particular stood out, he said: the World War II Army of Occupation Medalarmyoccupationribbon and the Defense Distinguished Service Medal.
It also looks like she is wearing the Army Good Conduct Medal, which if she served three years like she said, then she would rate that one.
Workman then called the Sanford PD according to the article on a blog at Militarytimes.
Workman got a hold of them and said they told him they didn’t have their own awards system, so they went to the Army-Navy store around the corner and picked out Defense Department military ribbons to fit their own format. The WWII was selected, the police department official told Workman, because they knew there weren’t many veterans from that period alive so they didn’t think people would notice.
“At the end of his explanation I thought to myself, ‘So that makes it all better now because these guys are dead?’ ” Workman said. ”The fact that that was their response is still pretty shameful, I think.”
Workman said police departments allowing military veterans to wear ribbons they earned while serving on their police uniform is fine with him. If they earned it, they should be able to wear it, he said.
“But what kind of professional police department would send Bob the patrolman around the corner to go pick out some ribbons for our officers to wear when they do something heroic or have good service over the years?” he asked.
Workman said the police department official told him that they’re going to change to their own ribbon system, which he was glad to hear. Now he hopes other police departments doing the same will think about their own regulations and change them too, he added.
So it does not look like the officer is at fault, seems she is only wearing what her department awarded her.
So my question to you is this, should Police Department;s and other agencies be allowed to use DOD ribbons for their own use? In my opinion, and according to 10 USC 771-772, no they are not allowed to.
But it could also cause confusion, as it did in this situation. I mean, a police officer wearing a Silver Star ribbon may turn a few heads. Thoughts?
http://guardianofvalor.com/marine-watch ... wwii-vets/
