Not being a Coastie, I can't give you a definitive answer, but since I worked w/ them for 6 months so far, here it goes...
Usually those guys are coming from the boat before they go to flight school. So you're seeing first tour guys who may have an end of tour award, plus campaign ribbons and stuff like Sea Service. Just after a 6 month cruise, I got 2 ribbons, a medal, and I'm awaiting another ribbon and a Humanitarian medal. And we weren't even in the Gulf. Then there's the standard pizza stain and shooting awards.