File:Blue Ridge Awards, Navy Arctic Service Ribbon?.jpg

English: Several years ago when I found the latest pic of BR's flying bridge ribbon rack ( https://commons.wikimedia.org/…/File:Blue_Ridge_Awards,_fil…), I attempted to analyze (at and from this pic: https://commons.wikimedia.org/…/File:Blue_Ridge_Awards,_fil… ) its pic and source history along with the missing REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM CAMPAIGN MEDAL that is absent from the display. The one ribbon that gave me the most aggravation, at row 5, column 3 (but it is from the starboard side and uses mirror logic for the priority within rows). I finally ID it as the ARMED FORCES RESERVE MEDAL ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_Reserve_Medal ) with a lot of question marks.

When the Wiki did a ribbon rack last month for Blue Ridge's Wikipedia, based on earlier pics, they ID this same ribbon as the ARCTIC SERVICE RIBBON ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_Arctic_Service_Ribbon ). I either didn't see an ARCTIC SERVICE RIBBON back then or dismissed it as a possibility and ignored it. If you look at these pics in this entry, what is on BR looks like the ARCTIC SERVICE RIBBON. There are at least three pics of BR's ribbon rack since at least 2011 where this "ARCTIC SERVICE RIBBON" is displayed.

I think I recall some entries from the ships history report or the official BR FB page talking about reserve groups coming aboard Blue Ridge for practical training, so I guess it could be possible that BR earned the ARMED FORCES RESERVE MEDAL. So is this just another sloppy job by whoever is in charge of it, after three prior screw-up's since at least 2011. Maybe their part of FAT LEONARD'S CLUBHOUSE and have other THINGS on their radar!

The ARCTIC SERVICE RIBBON is tracked by the official Navy award site report and there is no "AT" in this report ( https://commons.wikimedia.org/…/File:Blue_Ridge_Awards,_fil… ) for UNIT AWARDS FOR BLUE RIDGE LCC 19. I realize there was a comment in this blog about BR at some time going far up the North Pacific and talking about Blue Nosing, but I doubt if BR ever got beyond the latitude of Anchorage. the storms of the Bering Sea have a reputation for really being nasty. Even the admiral would have been puking on his rubber ducky in that bathtub. Then again, maybe one of the admirals was determined to wrestle polar bears and steamed Blue Ridge up the Bering Strait and onto the ice pack. Or a CO who was a real bluenose was determined to get the BLUE NOSE certification for his condition. And better yet, the crew mutinied and was determined to rub noses on a Eskimo liberty. 

I suppose there could other "rational" and especially Navy reasons for Blue Ridge going north of the Bering Strait but they would be the sea story of sea stories. The real clincher of this is the requirement that Blue Ridge needs 28 cumulative days of doing this for the ARCTIC SERVICE RIBBON. So what is that ribbon doing on its flying bridge? With the right background music, SPOOKS X INTEL just might have another YouTube.

This may be part of the problem with Blue Ridge's display of a medal on their flying bridge they didn't earn. If you look at the pics of Blue Ridge's flying bridge ribbon display from the early 1990's, they look like they were made by the crew. If you look at pics of the same from later years on BR's Wiki Commons, they look like the ribbons have been outsourced to corporations.

When I did a google search using "Ship Service Ribbon Board" this is the order form of medals available ( http://www.sea-display.com/awardsch.pdf ) from the only company that lists its products from that search ( http://www.sea-display.com/index.php ). While Blue Ridge may be entitled to the ARMED FORCES RESERVE MEDAL, you will not find one offered on that order form. However, you will find a ARCTIC SERVICE RIBBON offered. They look very similar to the uninformed from a distance. It fooled me until one Wiki monk called it out.

Did some one on Blue Ridge pull a fast one, hopping that no one would notice the false ribbon for the correct ribbon? When I gave my "heads-up" in my comment on BR's FB page in 2011 about the missing REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM CAMPAIGN MEDAL and was censored for it and prevented from commenting on any official Navy FB page after that, I thought they were hiding something. When the next photo appeared in 2012, it was clear they had been missing four additional medals and many stars from their flying bridge ribbon display and they were just covering their ass when they censored me.