r/MurderedByWords • u/SkullLeader • 7h ago

Cadet Bonespurs

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u/pchlster 5h ago

I was wondering if someone could read the ribbons. Any of them real?

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u/cryptotope 4h ago

Broadly speaking, the closer you look at them, the worse they get, inasmuch as they often fail to even get the general style right.

Ribbons with asymmetric patterns of stripes are rare at best, as are non-vertical stripes, stripes that change color or width from top to bottom, stripes that disappear halfway down the ribbon, etc.

It is rare for a soldier to have 'devices' - little stars or other markers to denote multiple awards of the medal - on nearly every ribbon like we see in this picture here. You also would expect to see devices that aren't just stars; oak leaf clusters are at least as common, for instance.

I don't know ribbons nearly well enough to say that none of them match any real award, but I'm pretty comfortable saying that if any of them do match a real ribbon it is purely by dumb luck and coincidence.

Compare and contrast with the ribbon bars on the uniform of a real (4-star) U.S. Army general.

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u/wurmsrus 2h ago edited 1h ago

Nitpick but he's an Air Force general, not an Army General.

Here's a 4 star Army General with a similar amount of awards/decorations

breakdowns of what they're for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagvin_Anderson#Awards_and_decorations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_LaNeve#Awards_and_decorations

anyway the uniform color and gold buttons in the OP seem closer to a Navy uniform so here's a 4 star admiral

and a breakdown of what his awards/decorations mean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Paparo#Awards_and_decorations

Edit:like you said the general style of awards is consistent across the branches,