To receive a Reserve Good Conduct Medal, a service member (excluding Army Reservists), must, generally, be an active member of the Reserve or National Guard and must have performed three to four years of satisfactory duty (to include drills and annual training) with such service being free of disciplinary action.

[5] Soldiers who are ordered to active duty in the Active Guard and Reserve program (AGR) will be awarded the ARCAM if they have completed two of the three years required (Good Conduct Medal eligibility starts on the effective date of the AGR order).

When the Soldier leaves the AGR program that one year and six months is granted towards the next award of the ARCAM.

Only the State Adjutant General may determine that the AGR service was not sufficiently honorable enough to revoke the previously earned time, regardless of the type of separation given.

This was strictly an enlisted service medal on par with Navy Good Conduct Medal for active duty enlisted sailors, to include those active duty enlisted sailors in the renamed U.S. Navy Reserve's Full Time Support (FTS) program, previously known as Training and Administration of the Reserve (TAR) prior to 2005, with FTS redesignated again as TAR in 2021.

Additional awards of the Air Reserve Forces Meritorious Service Medal are denoted with oak leaf clusters.

Commissioned officers are not eligible for award of the Air Reserve Forces Meritorious Service Medal.

As of January 1, 1996, the qualifying period of service was changed from four to three years to mirror the requirements of the Good Conduct Medal.

Created in 1963 and awarded for a standard satisfactory enlisted reserve tour of three years of duty.