Going to list a bunch of links to wikipedia.org pages for the various medals and ribbons. Starting with medals from left to right
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Conduct_Medal_(United_States)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Service_Medalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_War_on_Terrorism_Expeditionary_Medal The small bronze star on this one denotes that I was awarded it twice due to having 2 deployments in the eligble area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_War_on_Terrorism_Service_Medalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_War_on_Terrorism_Service_Medal This one was awarded from our hurricane Katrina relief efforts. We flew out helicopter from sunrise to sunset (not allowed to transport personal over water after sunset unless they had certain swim quals) for 6 weeks working minimum 16 hour days. But we still found time to drink. Damn drunken sailors.
And now the ribbons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Service_Ribbon Missed a bronze star (second award) on my first deployment by 3 days. I finished "A" school and got flown straight to the boat with a couple layovers in the process. Had to way 4 days for a part for the plane from VA so that part cost me a star on this ribbon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_%22E%22 Our squadron won this 2 years in a row out of the 3 full calander years I was in the squadron. We missed the third one due to a technecality that put a class "A" misshap on the squadron not the ship. Basically they landed a CH-53 in front of out SH60 and the rotor wash cracked all 4 main rotor blades ($250,000 each class "A" misshap is $1,000,000 in property damage or loss of life). But because our pilots were sitting in the cockpit (they didn't have time to get out since the 53 had just taken off from the flight deck and was broke so it had to land back on the boat) it went to us not the ship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_Unit_Commendation