Air Force Expeditionary Ribbon With Gold Frame

Criteria: The Air Force Expeditionary Ribbon (AFESR) is an award of the U.S. Air Force that can be bestowed upon any Air Force personnel who complete a standard contingency deployment. These deployments are defined as 45 consecutive or 90 non-consecutive days in a deployed status. Individual deployments that last longer than the 45 or 90 day period are awarded only once, and do not count towards an additional award. If a service member is deployed to a designated combat zone a gold frame, or border, is worn on the ribbon. This gold border is only awarded once and is worn on the basic AFESR regardless of how many or few combat operations a service member was involved in.

Created in June of 2003 the award is retroactive to October 1st, 1999. Additional awards are denoted by Oak Leaf Cluster devices.