The Restricted Duty Ribbon is a decoration of the United States Coast Guard which was first created on March 3, 1984. The award recognizes those Coast Guard personnel who have completed a permanent tour of duty at specific shore units where accompanying dependents are not authorized.
Where a service member is assigned without his or her dependent family members, the duty status is known as "unaccompanied." Standard unaccompanied duty tours are normally one to two years in length and occur in remote duty locations such as Greenland and the Arctic, and in combat areas. The Restricted Duty Ribbon is awarded at the conclusion of the unaccompanied tour.
In the case of overseas restricted duty stations, personnel who are eligible to receive the Restricted Duty Ribbon are not eligible to receive the Coast Guard Overseas Service Ribbon for the same period.
The Coast Guard is the only branch of the United States armed forces to award a decoration for the completion of unaccompanied duty tours. Additional awards of the Restricted Duty Ribbon are denoted by bronze and silver service stars.
Famous quotes containing the words restricted, duty and/or ribbon:
“Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)
“It is seldom very hard to do one’s duty when one knows what it is, but it is often exceedingly difficult to find this out.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“I have taken the ribbon from around my neck and hidden it somewhere on my person. If you find it, you can have it. You are free to look for it any way you will, and I will think very little of you if you do not find it.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)