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Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon

Open-knowledge reference entry

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 15, 2025
Entity authorityQ16977383 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon was an award of the United States Navy established on April 16, 1946. The ribbon was authorized by the Secretary of the Navy in recognition of service rendered in the period of January 1, 1930 to December 7, 1941.

The Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon was issued to officers of the Naval Reserve who had regularly commanded a Naval Reserve battalion, squadron, or "separate division" for a period of at least four years, or had commanded a Marine Corps Reserve battalion or squadron for the same period of time. To be eligible for the Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon, an officer must also have served at least ten years in the Naval Reserve as a whole.

The decoration was issued as a one-time-only award, and there were no devices authorized for additional awards of the Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon. The Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon end date was established on December 7, 1941, in light of the massive expansion and call-up of reserves for duty in World War II.

See also

Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces

References

External links

Part 3 - Special and Commemorative Medals, Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual [Rev. 1953].

Decorations, Medals, Ribbons, Badges of the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard 1861-1948 U.S. Navy. Bureau of Personnel. 1948.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon” is open-knowledge reference entry. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Reserve, Special and Commendation, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1946, 1930, 1941, 1953—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1946-04-16. For this dossier, Reserve, Special and Commendation is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “open-knowledge reference entry” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 15, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16977383. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 1930, 1941 and 1953.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon primary sources, Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon archive and Reserve research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Reserve Special Commendation Ribbon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.