The Coast Guard awards its enlisted personnel in the E-4 to E-9 grades a service stripe for every four full years of service, active-duty or reserve, in any of the Armed Forces of the United States (or any combination of services). This set of two stripes should be worn by Guardsmen who have between eight and eleven cumulative years of qualifying service.
Stripes are issued in three colors: gold stripes are awarded to the three grades of Chief Petty Officers (E-7 to E-9), while Petty Officers (E-4 to E-6) wear scarlet stripes on all jackets except the Dinner Dress White Jacket, which take navy blue stripes. The backing material on which the stripes are embroidered matches the jacket on which it is to be sewn.
Service stripes are worn on the outer half of the left sleeve, oriented at a 45-degree angle and positioned so that lowest edge of the stripe is two inches from the sleeve cuff; the stripe’s end seams are placed hallway between front and back crease of the sleeve. When adding a stripe to a sleeve that already has one or more stripes on it, the new stripe is placed 1/4-inch above the previous stripe.