US Campaign Ribbons

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

The applicable AR is mostly devoted to uniform wear. The brief civilian paragraph is quoted below:

30-6. Wear of medals on civilian clothes

Retired personnel and former members of the Army (as described above) may wear all categories of medals described in this regulation on appropriate civilian clothing. This includes clothes designed for veteran and patriotic organizations on Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, and Armed Forces Day, as well as at formal occasions of ceremony and social functions of a military nature. Personnel may wear either full-size or miniature medals. (emphasis added-MoR)

Although this refers to the civilian "uniforms" worn by members of organizations such as the VFW or the American Legion, by extension it also can be applied to Highland attire.

Personnel who wear medals on civilian clothes should place the medals on the clothing in approximately the same location and in the same manner as for the Army uniform, so they look similar to medals worn on the Army uniform.

AR 670-1 goes into greater specific detail.

I am not sure if "all categories of medals" includes ribbons or not. You see a lot of ribbons worn, but I'm not totally comfortable with it.

Ribbons are not authorized for civilian wear, only full-size medals (day) and miniature-size medals (evening). You are probably not comfortable with the idea of wearing ribbons on civilian attire because it's wrong to do so.

The question has been raised (outside of this forum) if it is appropriate (or legal) to wear US military medals on the uniform of a civilian organization that discriminates against individuals seeking membership based on requirements of race, religion, or national origin. Although neither the US Justice Department nor the Department of Defense has addressed the issue I would think that there may be a case to be made for restricting the wearing of medals in some instances.