Apple podcast title, The Deep Dive, decoding
the Armed Forces Reserve Medal and military honors.
Join us for a comprehensive deep dive into the
Armed Forces Reserve Medal. AFRM. We decode the
history of this unique U .S. military award,
explore the criteria for the hourglass and M
mobilization devices, and unpack how the military
honors the service of its reserve components
and National Guard. Ideal for military history
enthusiasts, veterans, and those fascinated by
the visual language of military uniforms, this
deep dive reveals the intricate stories of deployment,
Title X mobilization, and decades of service
hidden in plain sight on the ribbon rack. Welcome,
everyone, to today's Deep Dive. If you've ever
watched a military ceremony or... You've just
seen a service member in their dress uniform.
Yeah, exactly. Your eyes naturally go straight
to that block of colorful ribbons right there
on the check. Absolutely. It's the first thing
you notice. And to the uninitiated, it looks
like this impenetrable, highly classified code,
just blocks of color. But for those who know
how to read the regulations, that rack of ribbons
is a highly detailed, localized map of a person's
entire career. It's essentially a wearable resume.
Right. And today we are giving you, the listener,
the decoder ring for one very specific dynamic
piece of that puzzle, the Armed Forces Reserve
Medal or the AFRM. Which is such a great topic
because it's so unique. It really is. We're drawing
from a really comprehensive Wikipedia archive
on this to decode the architecture of this specific
honor, translating what looks like simple metal
and ribbon into a detailed story. You know, the
AFRM represents a really fascinating departure
from how we traditionally conceptualize military
awards. How so? Well, usually a medal represents
a static fixed achievement. You know, you participated
in a specific campaign or you performed a singular
act of valor. And that's it. The resulting medal
is the end of the story. It just sits there in
the uniform. Exactly. But the Armed Forces Reserve
Medal, it functions more like a living document.
It physically evolves and changes configuration
over the lifespan of a service member's career.
Through the addition of those little specialized
metal devices, right? Right. The devices on the
ribbon. So decoding this visual language means
looking past just the colorful fabric and understanding
the distinct architecture of the award. Because
fundamentally, the AFRM documents two very different
modes of military service. Time and action. Yes.
The sheer endurance of long -term commitment
and the sudden, immediate disruption of mobilization.
Those two pillars are really the defining characteristics
of the reserve components. But I think before
we break down how those pillars are represented
physically, it helps to understand the historical
vacuum this medal was actually designed to fill.
Right. Because it wasn't always just one universal
award. No, not at all. The AFRM is officially
presented by the Department of Defense or the
Department of Homeland Security for the Coast
Guard. To both officers and enlisted personnel
across all the branches. Yes, but establishing
that universal award meant dismantling older
branch -specific traditions that existed before
the 1950s. Following the Second World War and
heading into the early Cold War era, the U .S.
really recognized... the strategic necessity
of maintaining this massive standardized reserve
force. And prior to that era of unification,
The branches just had their own separate awards.
The Navy had been issuing the Naval Reserve Medal
since I think 1938. And the Marine Corps had
the Marine Corps Reserve Ribbon dating back to
1945. Right. Having disparate awards just contradicted
the whole unified joint force philosophy of the
newly established Department of Defense. The
creation of the AFRM was a direct response to
that need for standardization. Yeah. Executive
Order 10163 established the foundation in September
1950. And then it was officially promulgated
across the military in 1958. Right. And those
older awards were subsequently phased out. The
Naval Reserve Medal discontinued in 58, and the
Marine Corps Reserve Ribbon was retired in 65.
Creating a completely universal standard of recognition.
Whether a reservist was reporting to an armory,
a flight line, or a ship, the symbol of their
commitment became identical. Which brings us
to how that commitment is actually quantified.
The first primary element of the AFRM is time
served. And that is visually represented by the
hourglass device, which is honestly an incredibly
potent symbol for a medal predicated almost entirely
on endurance and longevity. It literally represents
time passing. So the foundational requirement
to earn the bare metal and the initial bronze
hourglass is the 10 -year rule. A member of the
reserve components, our National Guard, must
complete 10 years of service in the active reserve.
But the military regulations actually account
for the complex reality of a reservist's civilian
life here. The 10 years of service do not have
to be strictly consecutive. Right. They can be
cumulative, provided that the combined 10 years
fall within a rolling window of 12 consecutive
years. That two -year buffer is such a crucial
administrative accommodation. It really is, because
reservists are civilians first. They might face
a career relocation or pursue higher education
or just experience significant family events
that require them to temporarily transfer to
an inactive status. So the 12 -year window ensures
that a brief pause in drilling doesn't just completely
erase their progress toward the medal. Exactly,
though the parameters for what counts toward
that time can be highly specific. Like voluntary
recalls to active duty, those do not tally toward
the 10 -year reserve requirement. Right. And
the Navy has a very unique application regarding
its Individual Ready Reserve, the IRR. For those
unfamiliar, the IRR consists of trained service
members who have completed their active duty
commitments but still have time remaining on
their overall military contracts. They don't
drill on weekends, but they remain eligible for
mobilization. And for the Navy personnel in the
IRR are entirely eligible for the AFRM after
10 years of service. That's fascinating. Another
big distinction of the AFRM is how it diverges
from awards like the Good Conduct Medal. Oh,
yeah. The Good Conduct Medal requires a pristine
disciplinary record. Any infraction basically
resets the clock. But the Armed Forces Reserve
Medal, conversely, does not factor in a member's
disciplinary history at all. It is a pure metric
of availability and commitment to the reserve
component. If you remained on the books and were
available to the nation for a decade, you qualify
for the recognition. So once that first decade
is achieved, the visual progression of the hourglass
devices becomes this highly satisfying study
in military hierarchy. At 10 years of service,
a bronze hourglass is affixed to the suspension
ribbon and the smaller service ribbon worn on
the uniform. And if a reservist remains in service
to reach the 20 year mark, that bronze hourglass
is physically removed and replaced. with his
silver hourglass. Then reaching 30 years of reserve
service, which is a monumental achievement spanning
multiple decades of changing doctrine and geopolitical
shifts. A 30 -year career earns the gold hourglass,
completely replacing the silver. This progression
is entirely logical within the framework of military
awards up until we reach the extreme outlier.
Ah, yes, the 40 -year anomaly. This is a brilliant
example of regulations having to adapt to the
absolute extremes of human endurance. It really
is. Because if a service member actually manages
to dedicate 40 years to the reserve components,
the military does not introduce a platinum or
diamond hourglass. No, they don't. Instead, the
regulations stipulate that the service member
wears both the gold and the bronze hourglasses
simultaneously. Which violates the standard operating
procedure for nearly every other military award.
Completely. Usually a lower tier device is entirely
subsumed by the higher tier one. You don't see
a silver oak leaf cluster worn next to a bronze
one to signify a combined total. They represent
separate counts. But at 40 years, the 30 -year
gold device and the 10 -year bronze device sit
side by side. It's just simple visible addition
displayed right on the chest. 30 plus 10. And
while that progression seems straightforward
today, the physical construction of these metals
actually serves as a localized historical record.
Because of the 1996 shift. Right. There was a
major bureaucratic shift in 1996 that fundamentally
altered how the hourglass devices were awarded.
Meaning you can essentially carbon date a retiree's
service by looking at the specific devices on
their uniform. Prior to August 6, 1996, the governing
regulations were entirely different. Before the
implementation of Executive Order 13013, a service
member did not receive an hourglass for their
first award at 10 years. They just received the
bare ribbon. Exactly. The bronze hourglass wasn't
presented until the second award signifying 20
years of service. Two bronze hourglasses meant
30 years and three meant 40. So the 1996 Executive
Order shifted the entire scale backward so that
the bronze hourglass started at the 10 -year
mark. But the crucial insight here is that military
administrative changes are rarely retroactive.
Right. The catch is, if a reservist was discharged
or retired before that rule change in August
1996, they were not eligible to have their records
corrected or their devices upgraded to the new
standards. So the resulting physical uniform
is literally a snapshot of the geopolitical and
regulatory era in which that person served. If
you look at the uniform of someone who retired
in 1994 with 20 years of service, their medal
features one bronze hourglass. But a person who
retired in 1998 with only 10 years of service
also wears one bronze hourglass dictated by the
new rules. The medal is an immutable legal document
of its specific era. It's so cool. It really
is. Now that covers the element of time. But
the very nature of the reserve force is that
they are held in reserve for a crisis. When a
global contingency arises, time served becomes
irrelevant. And the second pillar of the award
is activated. This introduces the M device representing
mobilization. The M device fundamentally shifts
the paradigm of the Armed Forces Reserve Medal.
When a reservist is involuntarily mobilized for
a contingency operation, the 10 -year requirement
is immediately waived. A National Guard member
could be out of basic training for six months,
but if their unit is called up... They are immediately
awarded the AFRM with the bronze M device. The
authority for this mobilization is very specific,
though. The M device is triggered when a reservist
is involuntarily called to active duty under
Title 10, which designates federal military operations.
Or Title 14 for the Coast Guard. Right. It is
also authorized if a member volunteers for federal
active duty during one of these designated mobilizations.
And in the modern era of prolonged conflicts,
a single mobilization is rarely the end of the
story. The military accounts for multiple subsequent
deployments through the use of numeral devices
worn alongside the M. So if a service member
is mobilized a second time, they receive a numeral
two. A third time earns a numeral three. However,
the bureaucratic criteria for earning those numerals
reveals a really fascinating, highly legalistic
approach to military administration. This is
where we get into the same executive order loophole.
Yes, this was a massive aha moment from the sources.
This perfectly illustrates how administrative
policy shapes the physical uniform. The regulations
explicitly mandate that subsequent mobilizations
must be authorized under a completely different
executive order call -up to warrant a new numeral
device. So it tracks the legal authority, not
the number of times a soldier actually packs
their bags and deploys. Exactly. To put that
into perspective, consider the post -9 -11 landscape.
Executive Order 13223 was signed in September
2001, authorizing the mobilization of the Ready
Reserve for the global war on terrorism. Okay.
A reservist could be activated under that order
and deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring
Freedom. They return home, resume their civilian
career, and four years later, they are mobilized
again under that same executive order, this time
deploying for Operation Iraqi Freedom. And then
years later, they could be called up a third
time for Operation New Dawn. Right. That is three
distinct com - But because human resources and
military bureaucracy track the initial legal
authorization, all three of those mobilizations
fall under Executive Order 13223. Consequently,
that soldier is authorized just one single bronze
M device, no numerals indicating the multiple
tours. That is wild. Conversely, a different
reservist could be mobilized once for Desert
Storm under a 1990 executive order and once for
the Homeland Defense Mission Noble Eagle under
a 2001 order. far less total time on active duty,
that reservists would wear the M with a numeral
two. It is a stark reminder of the rigid logic
governing military awards. Definitely. And the
Department of Defense authorizes the M device
for specific designated military operations.
Reviewing that list is essentially reading a
geopolitical history of American foreign policy
over the last three decades. It really illustrates
the transition of the reserve components from
a strategic in -case of emergency force during
the Cold War into a heavily utilized operational
force. The modern utilization of the M device
really began with the massive mobilizations for
the Persian Gulf War, specifically operations
Desert Shield and Desert Storm. And then throughout
the 1990s, the reserves were continually activated
for operations like Restore Hope in Somalia and
Uphold Democracy in Haiti. The Balkan conflicts
required sustained reserve support across multiple
named operations too. Joint Endeavor, Joint Guard,
and Joint Forge in Bosnia, followed by Operation
Allied Force in Kosovo. Then the operational
tempo increased exponentially with the global
war on terrorism. The M device was authorized
for the Homeland Defense Mission Operation Noble
Eagle alongside the overseas campaigns. Enduring
freedom, Iraqi freedom, new dawn, freedoms, sentinel,
and inherent resolve. Notably, the source material
emphasizes that even if a contingency operation
is not officially named by the Pentagon, if it
results in an involuntary call to active duty
under the specified statutes, the M device is
still authorized. The lack of a bureaucratic
naming convention doesn't invalidate the reservist's
deployment. Because you have all these distinct
devices, though, the M, the numerals, the bronze,
silver and gold hourglasses, the military had
to create an incredibly rigid system for how
they physically fit onto a tiny piece of... Oh,
the ribbon real estate. Yes. The service ribbon
worn on the daily uniform is only 1 3⁄8 inches
wide. Managing that space is an exact science.
The placement regulations are dictated down to
the millimeter. So if a service member only has
the hourglass, meaning they hit their decade
milestones but were never mobilized, that hourglass
is centered precisely on the ribbon. And if they
only have the M device, meaning they were mobilized
before hitting 10 years, the M sits directly
in the center. Any numerals for subsequent mobilizations
go to the wearer's left of the M. The hierarchy
really reveals itself when a service member is
authorized both devices. When you have a long
-serving reservist who has also been mobilized,
the hourglass is given precedence. Because in
military uniform regulations, the position of
honor is generally toward the wearer's right,
closer to the heart. Therefore, the hourglass
takes that premier first position on the wearer's
right. The M device is bumped to the center position.
And if there are any numerals for subsequent
unrelated mobilizations, they are placed on the
remaining space on the wearer's left. It creates
a symmetrical, highly structured representation
of a military career. Time served sits in the
position of honor while action scene anchors
the center. Like we said earlier, it's a wearable
resume balancing a reservist's endurance with
their readiness to answer the call. Once you
understand the architecture of this specific
ribbon, it completely changes how you view a
reserve career. You're no longer looking at a
random block of colors. You are reading a detailed
history of American foreign policy and personal
sacrifice pinned directly to the uniform. You
can recognize immediately if someone dedicated
three decades of quiet service or if their life
was repeatedly interrupted by global contingency
operations. It's a lot of information in a very
small space. As we conclude this deep dive, there
is a broader implication regarding the future
of these symbols that builds directly on the
source material. We have discussed how the M
device is triggered by an involuntary mobilization
for a contingency operation. Right, and historically
that meant packing a duffel bag and physically
deploying to a theater of war. But the geographical
realities of warfare are rapidly shifting. The
definition of a deployment is no longer strictly
bound by physical borders. Exactly. Consider
the rise of cyber warfare and remote drone operations.
Today, a reservist can be involuntarily mobilized
under Title 10 to conduct offensive cyber operations.
They can be actively engaged in neutralizing
enemy networks or flying combat drone missions
from a secure facility in Maryland or Nevada
and then literally drive home to their family
at the end of their shift. They are undeniably
mobilized for a global contingency, but their
physical location never changes. It raises a
profound question for you to ponder about the
visual language of military honors. Does a digital
deployment carry the exact same physical symbol,
the bronze M device, as a reservist who deploys
to a physical combat zone in the Middle East?
As the nature of conflict evolves, will the military
need to create a new, distinct visual language
for remote and digital warfare? Or will the historical
M device simply stretch its definition to encompass
the digital battlefield? It is a really complex
issue of recognition and tradition to explore
as we look at the future of military service.
A very compelling question to leave us with.
Thank you so much for joining us on this deep
dive into the Armed Forces Reserve Medal. Keep
your eyes open, stay curious, and we will catch
you on the next one.