Criteria: Awarded to those U.S. Coast Guard personnel having completed an unaccompanied duty tour in which dependents were not eligible. Standard unaccompanied duty tours are normally one to two years in length and occur in remote duty locations such as Greenland and the Arctic. In such cases, where a service member is assigned without his or her family, the duty status is known as "unaccompanied." The Restricted Duty Thin Ribbon is awarded at the conclusion of the unaccompanied tour and was created on March 3, 1984. The Coast Guard is the only branch of the United States military awarding a decoration for the completion of unaccompanied duty tours. Additional awards of the Restricted Duty Thin Ribbon are denoted by bronze and silver service stars.

Note: This service ribbon is one of the few awards issued by the military as a ribbon only. There is no accompanying medal.