My very own brother stopped wearing the Bronze Star with V he won after he met someone who was giving the award for ferrying messages to and from ships during the Grenada thing. Bro felt that simply doing your job didn't deserve that award and cheapened his.

I can wear (at this time) the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Korea Defense Service Medal and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation. I received these for being there. I also have the Expert shooting badge in rifle, carbine, and automatic rifle and an Illinois State Duty ribbon (for flood duty) -- THOSE I earned. I can wear blue backing on my collar insignia, blue scarf, and a "blue rope" because I'm Infantry MOS qualified and stuff.

Lef's see...the last time I wore any of that was in...gee, 1969 or 70, I think.

Some folks have more, some have less. Except for a very few (such as the VC or the Medal of Honor) they don't matter much outside of the military and diplomatic circles.

I've never been to a gathering where I felt it necessary to wear my medals, and I probably wouldn't want to go to one. Too few folk songs, too few banjos, and too little drink.