"Effective 1 June 2019, the requirement for enlisted Sailors to obtain 12 years of service along with continuous good conduct and minimum performance evaluation to qualify for wear of gold rating badges and service stripes is rescinded. All enlisted Sailors with 12 cumulative years of naval active or active reserve service are authorized to wear gold rating badges, and gold service stripes in lieu of red rating badges and stripes"
Why?
According to this article
https://www.military.com/kitup/2019...12-years-good-conduct-sport-gold-stripes.html
Sailors who have qualified for the gold stripes but are later convicted by court-martial or nonjudicial punishment (NJP) must also switch to red. At that point, the 12-year clock to earn the gold stripes back starts over again. That means most end their careers before requalifying.
In 2017, Chief Musician Jessica Privler called for a change to that policy. Sailors who receive an NJP can lose
pay, rank or face other punishment, she
wrote in the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings magazine.
"Must one also atone for wrongdoing by being marked with differentiating uniform components?" Privler asked.
Red service stripes can humiliate the wearer and invite gossip, she said, and the color of the uniform items can lead others to mistrust their work or devalue their potential.
"Ultimately, we must ask ourselves what the goal of this regulation is and what it achieves," Privler wrote. "If the answer is public shaming, then the Navy is successful. ... By leaving this tradition behind, we would allow sailors to move on from their past mistakes." /snippet
It's a double whammy, the Navy needs to kill off some tradition
and shelter Sailors from hurt feelings.