I’ve been retired for some time.
I still remember having to get a formal picture taken for my files. I was astonished at the number of ‘good job’ ribbons I was entitled to wear.
It was explained to me that it was very important that I wear all the ribbons in this photograph. Some members of promotion board would take a magnifying glass to inspect the photograph to ensure that all the ribbons wear there and in the proper order. Evidently, this inspection disclosed which officers paid attention to detail and were good candidates for promotion.
Not only that , but many of us saw cooks, desk pushers, , and pillow case issuers getting exactly the same medal as us when they did nothing and never were in danger.
Today they get ribbons for finishing training, doing good in shooting, hell the military is starting to look like the Mexican Generals with all these ribbons and medals.
What’s funny is the uniform regulations when I was in only required that you wear your top 3 awards. I watched a lot of my classmates get plenty of medals/ribbons for administrative stuff but it all depended on the CO.
There were the anti-award guys and the pro-award guys and plenty of careers were ruined by the anti’s just because of the different approaches.
I missed the comraderie of the service when I got out, but I sure didn’t miss the political bs.
The odd thing, which I think will surprise most civilians, is that most in the military could not correctly identify half of the ribbons the generals wear.
I’m sure in places where class A’s are the norm (Pentagon), people get used to identifying them - but as you point out, most only deal with this when its time to get a photo taken.
And when it comes to order of precedence, well even fewer people know that - mostly people on promotion boards and workers at Korean laundry mats near post.