The reason is that if there is no medal then when in Dress Blue A’s you would wear medals on the left and ribbons w/o medals on the right...thus the CAR would stand out!
Now another question....on a CAR what criteria rates multiple awards (stars)....I was overseas (Iraq) and was involved in many firefights, RPG attacks and two IED attacks....but yet I only rated one CAR? Interesting, the only thing I can figure is had I been deployed more than once maybe I would have rated it?!
The CAR is a personal award.
Unless it's changed,
You only can get 1 award per operation.
So, if you qualified in Operation Enduring Freedom,(regardless of the number of sh$t-storms you were in) you’d get the CAR.
If you again qualified in Operation Iraqi Freedom,you could again get the CAR which would be represented as a device on your ribbon.
BTW...Thank You for your service and...
Semper Fi