Awarded to enlisted Soldiers serving in the Army’s Active Component, including Active Guard Reservists who serve extended periods of active duty, the
Army Good Conduct Medal (AGCM) was established on 28 June 1941 by Executive Order 8809. Eligibility requirements relating to qualifying service periods were subsequently modified by Executive Orders 9323 (1943) and 10444 (1953).
As a general rule, the award is given to Soldiers who complete three years of duty that meets the standards of conduct and performance outlined in Chapter 4 of Army Regulation 600-8-22,
Military Awards. Exceptions for the first awarding of the medal are made for Soldiers whose service is terminated after less than one year when the cause of final separation is physical disability that was suffered in the line of duty, as well as for Soldiers who died in the line of duty before they could complete one year of active service.
For second and subsequent awards of the AGCM, a system of clasps and loops is used to make it easy to quickly determine how many times the wearer has been honored. Bronze clasps are worn by Soldiers who have been awarded the AGCM two to five times, with a corresponding number of loops on the clasp: a four-time AGCM recipient will wear a Bronze clasp with four loops. Similar to the system used for Service Stars, a Silver clasp will stands for five awards and the original medal, so a Silver clasp with one loop would mean the wearer had been awarded the AGCM six times. Gold claps are used to represent ten AGCMs; a gold clasp with five loops would indicate the wearer had been honored with the AGCM fifteen times.