After more than a decade of anticipation, the Marine Corps is unveiling a new ribbon for combat instructors. The change comes just weeks after the service announced cuts to special duty assignment pay.
Combat instructors will now receive a ribbon following a successful tour on the special duty assignment. Marines who serve as recruiters, drill instructors and Marine security guards at embassies also receive ribbons following SDA tours. The new ribbon now leaves members of Marine Corps Security Force Regiment the lone duty of the five SDAs without one.
Thousands will be eligible for the new ribbon which is backdated for anyone who has worked as a combat instructor or in a high-profile leadership role at School of Infantry East or SOI West since Oct. 9, 2002, when the job was opened to Marines from all military occupational specialties. With a shrinking Corps, fewer instructors will be needed, but at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan there were more than 900 at any given time.
The ribbon is a significant reversal from Marine leadership after at least two commandants openly quashed the idea. All Marine Message 056/02, released in October 2002, stated that “an appropriate service ribbon will be developed and authorized,” but less than a year later, Headquarters Marine Corps turned down service ribbon recommendations. Former Commandant Gen. James Conway later upheld official opposition to a new ribbon and the debate raged on six years later.
Basic details of the new ribbon were recently outlined in All Navy Message 060/14, released Aug. 22 by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. The message outlines basic eligibility criteria, but Marine leaders are waiting for the ribbons to be manufactured before releasing additional guidance, including how eligibility for the ribbon will be vetted and how retroactive awards will be handled once the ribbons are produced.
“[Headquarters Marine Corps] anticipated release of amplifying information withing 30 days of the release of this message,” the message states.
As of press time, the Marine Corps public affairs office at the Pentagon failed to answer questions about the ribbon’s design, its precedence relative to other awards, why it was authorized and whether there are plans to do the same for Security Force Marines.
To be eligible for the ribbon, Marines must complete an entire three-year tour, with few exceptions, in a qualifying billet. Those include any Marines serving in an 0913 Marine Combat Instructor billet or those who served in the billet when it was designated 8513. Additionally, Marines who serve in a billet with the advanced Infantry Training Battalion are eligible. Among them are the reconnaissance training company staff noncommissioned officer in charge, the reconnaissance training continuum manager, and light armored vehicle crewman course vehicle operators.
The message also details approval for Marines who served in several leadership billets at SOI East or West to wear the ribbon.
Instructors must normally complete a 36-month tour and leaders 18-month tours to receive a ribbon, however waivers can be given under certain circumstances. The commanding officer of one of the SOI school can waive the tour length up to six months, meaning in some cases a Marine can earn a ribbon in just 30 months. That is more likely than not to accommodate strong performers who cannot complete a tour because of injury or illness, for example.
Marines can earn more than a single ribbon for subsequent tours as a combat instructor but only if they are separate tours. In other words, a Marine who voluntarily extends past 36-months is considered to simply be executing an extended tour. They must leave the billet, and return as a combat instructor at a later time to earn subsequent awards which are denoted by a 3/16-inch bronze star. A sixth award is denoted by a silver star.
Ribbons have been used by other SDAs like drill instructor to lure Marines to the duty. The grueling job is seen as a career booster and in an effort to retain experience, the Marine Corps began offering a second ribbon after an additional 20 months, on top of a standard 36-month tour, on the drill field.
In 2008, a letter sent to the commanding general of Training and Education Command from the deputy commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs explained more about the decision not to award combat instructors a ribbon at that time.
“While Marine combat instructors are performing an important and demanding mission, Marine instructors at other MOS producing schools are performing equally demanding and important roles in training new Marines to join the operating forces,” the letter states.
At the time, the ribbon did not meet Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual stipulations that awards should distinguish an individual or unit from those performing similar acts or service, according to officials at Quantico and the Pentagon.
Others argued, however, that running ranges and dealing with live fire was inherently dangerous and thus distinguished them from other instructors.
