What is the best military decoration or award in the world. By best I mean ugliest, gaudiest piece of flair from any military. Preferably something with a sash. Maybe something that spells “lion tamer” in flashing lights. Pictures for cites if you can.
I assume you mean cosmetically, and not most difficult to get?
Best is a very broad descriptor, and could be interpreted a number of ways…
That is why I said “By best I mean ugliest, gaudiest piece of flair from any military.”
Cosmetically only. I’m sure there are many that are equally difficult to get. In recent practice it seems to be impossible to be awarded the US military’s Medal of Honor for any action that you happen to live through. Can’t get much tougher than that.
I’ll have what Idi Amin’s wearing: The late Art Cockerill's website
Then there’s Edward VII of Great Britain: http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/57/79857-004-2CB1B2D6.jpg
Ex-King Zog of Albania was relatively understated: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qdr2w1PNnCU/SZB2_O-NN4I/AAAAAAAAAlg/gNR-ips2K5s/s400/Albania’s+King+Zog.jpg
Haakon VII of Norway had it goin’ on: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.war44.com/images/Album/Haakon%2520VII,%2520King%2520of%2520Norway.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.war44.com/forum/269-post1.html&usg=__Ex3FAHjtnWpkFmSSbkyzan1jVRg=&h=500&w=386&sz=56&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=OiWZyvJo8Gug7M:&tbnh=130&tbnw=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dking%2Bnorway%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den
But I guess Emperor Bokassa went in for gold braid rather than medals: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/27/66798755_f82c4cbad9_m.jpg
I do like the Idi Amin’s fashion sense. I don’t think I have what it takes to pull off wearing an entire dinner service for eight on my uniform.
What I am hoping for is some names and pictures of specific awards. Nothing wrong with obscure and bizarre.
The Order of the Elephant (Denmark) is pretty glitzy: http://www.almanachdechivalry.com/db2/00117/almanachdechivalry.com/_uimages/Elephant_Order_with_Star.jpg
These Serb orders aren’t too shabby: http://www.royalfamily.org/history/orders3.htm
Or maybe you’d like to go Thai?
http://www.cabinet.thaigov.go.th/eng/d_Rajami00.htm
http://www.cabinet.thaigov.go.th/eng/d_Ninegem00.htm
Perfect. It will take a lot to beat the Order of the Elephant.
Moved from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
Gfactor
General Questions Moderator
At various times, Germany had the Iron Cross 2nd Class, the larger Iron Cross 1st Class, the larger yet Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, the twice as large as the Iron Cross Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, and the still even larger Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross.
SACEUR and future President Dwight Eisenhower picked up quite a bit of foreign military bling:
Although not exclusively a military order, Knights of the Garter get some nice duds and a medal about the size of a pie plate:
But the OP specified military awards - most of that bling isn’t military. The four stars underneath the medals look like the stars of the four highest knighthoods in the United Kingdom: Garter, Thistle, St. Patrick and Bath - and the sash would likely be the sash of the Garter.
The order of the Elephant isn’t strictly military, though.
It’s mostly awarded to heads of state, to Danish Royalty and a few select others - Tycho Brahe and Niels Bohr were both knights of the order. (Niels Bohr picked the symbol of Yin and Yang for his coat of arms in the order, rather out there for 1947, but a neat tie-in to the principle of complementarity.)
However, Montgomery and Eisenhower were both made knights after WWII, Eisenhower specifically in his capacity as general rather than President, so the award is available for military people who have performed extraordinary services for Denmark.
why an elephant, in Denmark?
The exact reason is lost in time (it’s not even known exactly when the order started using the elephant - sometime around 1580), but apparently the elephant was a symbol of chastity and piety in those days.
To celebrate the Carlsberg Elephant Beer, of course 
what is the german award nicknamed ‘ruby’?
Dunno.
Brezhnev sure liked his bling (several of his medals were revoked after his death): Rankopedia - Find the best online casinos
At least Marshal Georgi Zhukov actually earned his: http://vnthuquan.net/truyen/anhminhhoa/Zhukov.jpg
On the flip side, the *least *ostentatious military award is probably the IDF Medal of Valor - a plain yellow bar.
Wow. His tailor must have gone “Dammit Georgi, stop being so damn heroic all the time. You want I should pin some on your ass ?!”
On the other hand, he was probably bullet-proof.
His Wiki page states he got the Order of Lenin no less than 6 times. I have no idea what the Order is about, but at that point they should have just made him “Lenin Himself”, save some time (and chest real estate).