Armed Forces Reserve Medal - For Service - The Hourglass Device

The Hourglass Device

In the Army Reserve and National Guard, a service member qualifies for the medal after completing a total of ten years service in the active reserve. This service may be cumulative, provided that the combined ten years of service was performed over a period of twelve consecutive years. Voluntary recalls to active duty are not counted within the ten years of service. In addition, unlike the Reserve Good Conduct Medal, a service member’s disciplinary history is not a factor when awarding the Armed Forces Reserve Medal. In the Naval Reserve, members of the Individual Ready Reserve are eligible for the medal after 10 years of service. Periods of service for the Armed Forces Reserve Medal are denoted through the use of the hourglass device. The length of the period for which the Armed Forces Reserve Medal is awarded is indicated using a bronze hourglass, silver hourglass, gold hourglass, or bronze and gold hourglasses together. The initial presentation of the Armed Forces Reserve Medal is authorized with the bronze hourglass device denoting ten years of reserve service. At twenty years of service, the hourglass is upgraded to silver and at thirty years the hourglass becomes gold. For those who complete forty years of reserve service, a gold and bronze hourglass device are worn simultaneously. This is the only case where hourglasses are worn together; in all other cases the hourglass device is upgraded to the next higher award degree and is worn as a single device.

Prior to 1995, the hourglass device was presented only upon the second and subsequent awards of the Armed Forces Reserve Medal, as in a bronze hourglass for twenty years of service, silver for thirty, and gold for forty. This was changed when the Armed Forces Reserve Medal was authorized for award, without a device, to those who had been mobilized to active duty. At that point, the hourglass device was presented for the initial ten year award to distinguish those who had received the award through years of service compared to those who had earned the decoration through mobilization. The change in the awarding criteria for the Hourglass Device applied only to those personnel who had not yet received the Armed Forces Reserve Medal or had received the decoration before 1995 and were still serving on active duty or as a member of the reserves. Personnel discharged or retired, prior to the change of the Hourglass Device award criteria, are not eligible for a correction of records or an upgrade of the Hourglass Device, as the Hourglass Device would have originally been presented under the original award specifications.