When I advised the poster (to wear the fullsized medals) it was one serviceman talking to another serviceman in the context of a military ball. Some one picked this up, read it wrong and went on a rant about people who arn't military wearing medals, not what is being discussed at all.

For most service persons you are issued the full sized medals but do not wear them, one wears the ribbons on class "B" uniforms and minatures on the "Dress" uniform. So when do you wear them? The answer is well nowhere. This is utter BS.

If a Soldier or Vet is entitled to wear a medal (because orders were written awarding the medal to the person in question) then why not wear the full sized medals? Federal law trumps military regulations. Under current US Law Currently serving Military and Veterans may wear the uniform but the law does not specify what a uniform is or is not. The lack of definition of what is or is not a uniform is important. In addition a Veteran may under law wear either the current uniform but also his "historical" uniform. This trumps the military Regulations that forbid "old" uniforms. This is why you see WWI vets still dressed in Doughboy uniforms, they can, by law.

If the Soldier in question was on-duty then the Kansas ARNG Regulation KN-670-1 applies but off duty (when the ball will take place) then US Federal law applies and he is a "Veteran wearing his uniform to a military function" as provided for in law. Technially National Guardsmen can not wear their uniform off duty, that is the crime of "impersonating a federal official" as the NG uniform is exactly the same as the Regular Army's uniform. It is the Federal Law, not Kansas ARNG Regulations, that allow the wear of their uniforms off duty.

This is the oddball byplay between two seperate and distinct sets of Laws/Regs that do in fact contridict each other. This is not advice for Civillians just GI to GI.

As far as what is or is not a uniform, it is the buttons and the piping (cords on the edges) that define a uniform. So converting a military jacket to civillian means removing all the do-dads and changing the buttons, which is the oppisit of how the Army "militarized" a dinner jacket into a uniform.