A follow up to my post about President Bush being a "deserter":
I need to wear my dress uniform for a function on Saturday night, so I was getting my ribbons organized so I could attach them properly. In the Marine Online system, it says I don't rate the National Defense Medal. The only qualification for the NDM is being on active duty during wartime. As I was on active duty during the Gulf War and the Iraq War, I rate two of them.
Funny though -- Marine Online says have a Combat Action Ribbon. In other words, the computer thinks I was in combat during wartime, but during combat I was not on active duty, and thus I do not rate the NDM. Hmm....
So are you going to wear them both?
Of course -- my (paper-based) service record book is definitive on things like that, and they've both been officially added to the SRB.