he's at work, but once he gets home I'll ask him to give y'all a rundown of what's what.

I do know that the first one on the 5th row has a gold border on it for valor.  The oak leaves and the stars are 'devices' meaning that he's completed the requirements for that ribbon more than once.  Because they don't give out the same medal multiple times, they give you a 'device' to wear on it.  Some of them only allow you to wear one or two devies on the ribbon, even though you may have earned more devices.....like the marksman ribbon, for example.  He only has once device on it, even though he's qualified for the ribbon almost every time he's gone and shot.

Pseudo: yeah, he's been in 13 years and 3 months.   So, we have 6 years and 9 months to go until he can retire...not that we're counting or anything.

Uh, huh!  Not counting, just counting down!

OOps, I made a mistake...the AF exp. Service has the gold border to indicate VALOR, not combat. 

Wow...I never knew he had a medal for valor.  I knew he was considered a combat vet, but never knew about the valor thing.

I'm impressed.