NATO Non Article 5 Medal?

From the Soldier side: OK, so I’ve never been one who got too excited about getting trinkets and stuff.  My last promotion, before deploying to Iraq, I asked the First Sergeant if I could just stick my new stripes on and be done with it.  He thought I’d love to be promoted in front of the company…Nope.  The promotion is OK, I just don’t like making a big deal out of it.

My best friend is very interested in these medals and things.  I’ll admit there’s a story that goes with each one, and when I put them on a rack, it might look cool. I kept my dad’s ribbons when he died.  I was proud of his.  He spent 22 years in the Air Force.  (Aim High!)

There was this time when we were in Bosnia.  My team had an actual mission we were supposed to go out on when the camp commander of the little tiny camp we were at told us: “the General is flying up to give us our medals.”   We were 2.5 hours away by road, so he flew up in a Blackhawk.
I didn’t really care and I asked: “what medals?  Can’t they just mail them to us?” 
Nope, the camp commander insisted that we wait and get our medals.  We were with the “RED BULLS” and when the General came up to me and pinned my little medal things on he asked: “What part of Minnesota are you from Soldier?” 

I said: “Sir, I’m from a little town north of San Francisco.” 

He still gave me my trinkets…but I thought he was going to chock.  I guess he forgot that our little teams that went out every day were made up from California National Guard pukes. 

What are these things worth? 

NATO Non-Article 5 Medal for the Balkans Ribbon $1.50

NATO Non-Article 5 Medal for the Balkans Ribbon Criteria: Awarded to U.S. Armed Forces personnel serving 30 days or more in the Balkan Theater on or after January 1, 2003. The “Balkan Theater” is defined as the political boundaries and airspace of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (including Kosovo), Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Albania, based on the detailed descriptions contained in the corresponding various NATO operations plans. Service days may be either continuous or accumulated. Those personnel serving as aircrew members accumulate one day of service for the first sortie flown during any day of the operation. Additional sorties on the same day receive no further credit. This medal is authorized to replace the NATO medals issued for NATO Operations Joint Forge and Joint Guardian. Note: This service ribbon is issued by the military along with an accompanying medal. Check the appropriate Branch of Service category for purchase of its medal counterpart.