male CPO is 7 inches long and 3/8 inch wide. The female CPO’s service stripe is 5 1/4 inches long and 1/4 inch wide. When you wear more than one service stripe, position them 1/4 inch apart. The color of the service stripe differs with various uniform requirements and the years of service. CPOs wear scarlet service stripes when they have less than 12 years’ total military service or have a break in their good conduct eligibility require- ments.  Receiving  the  Navy’s  Good  Conduct Medal, the Reserve Meritorious Service Award, or the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal depends on your conduct, performance, and reliability. Gold hash marks require that you have at least three service stripes. To continue wearing the gold hash marks requires that you continue  to  meet  the  eligibility  requirements throughout your career. If you fail to maintain the  eligibility  requirements  for  the  continued wearing of gold, the 12-year eligibility requirement will be reestablished. A courts-martial conviction also terminates your eligibility to wear gold hash marks. A person who was authorized to wear gold hash marks upon transfer to the Fleet Reserve may retain this right if recalled to active duty. In this case, Fleet Reserve time is considered neutral time for determining additional service stripes. Awards An award is a term used to denote any decoration, medal, badge, ribbon, or attachment given to a person. Personnel wear all awards in a certain precedence or order as part of the uniform. Precedence indicates relative importance of  the  award.  Awards  are  divided  into  the following five categories: • • • • • Military decorations Unit awards Nonmilitary  decorations Campaign and service awards Foreign decorations and non-U. S, service awards PRECEDENCE. —You may wear all awards according to their order of precedence as shown in chapter 10 of Uniform Regs.  Awards  and United States decorations received from other services may be worn below all naval awards. MILITARY  DECORATION.  —A person receives this award for an act of exceptional bravery or heroism or for particularly meritorious service. These awards receive the highest precedence and include the following decorations: • Medal of Honor • Navy Cross • Purple Heart • Navy Commendation Medal • Navy Achievement Medal UNIT AWARDS. —These awards  are similar to military decorations. You may receive these awards for a particular time period specified in a citation. They are usually worn by all personnel who were attached to a unit or command during a  particular  time  period  specified  in  the citation.  You  may  wear  unit  awards  below military decorations. They include the following decorations: Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon Meritorious Unit Commendation Ribbon Navy E NONMILITARY  DECORATIONS.  —You receive these decorations for various personal actions. If you are awarded more than one non- military decoration, the dates the awards are accepted  will  establish  their  precedence.  One exception to this rule is when two or more awards for the same agency are authorized. The rules for precedence established within that agency will then apply. Additionally you may wear a nonmilitary award on your uniform only if you wear it with at least one military award. Nonmilitary decorations rank next in line after unit awards in order of precedence. A partial listing of non- military decorations follows: Presidential Medal of Freedom Gold Lifesaving Medal Silver Lifesaving Medal Medal of Merit 7-21