I'm not sure what the ropes/ribbons are about but here is a thread all about the Sea Org uniforms on an Ex Scientologist message board.

It's touched on here:
Quote:

Later on he brought in the idea of staff wearing military style decorative ribbons as symbols of missions etc. These, of course, closely resembled normal military decorations. It is illegal to falsely wear a military decoration unless you have been officially awarded it.


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