Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces
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Various medals, service ribbons, ribbon devices, and specific badges recognize military service and personal accomplishments of members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Such awards are a means to outwardly display the highlights of a service member's career.
U.S. military awards currently issued to service members
General order of precedence
The precedence of particular awards will vary slightly among the different branches of service. All awards and decorations may be awarded to any service member unless otherwise designated by name or notation.
Ribbon/award name
Personal decorations
Awarded for "Conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty"
Medal of Honor
Service cross medals – Awarded for "extraordinary heroism in combat"
Distinguished Service Cross (Army)
Navy Cross
Air Force Cross
Coast Guard Cross
Distinguished service medals – Awarded for "exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility"
Defense Distinguished Service Medal
Homeland Security Distinguished Service Medal
Distinguished Service Medal (Army)
Navy Distinguished Service Medal
Distinguished Service Medal (Air and Space Forces)
Coast Guard Distinguished Service Medal
Awarded for "gallantry in action"
Silver Star Medal
Awarded for "superior or exceptionally meritorious service"
Defense Superior Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Awarded for "heroism or extraordinary achievement in aerial flight"
To denote additional achievements or multiple awards of the same decoration, the United States military maintains a number of award devices which are pinned to service ribbons and medals.
Inactive and obsolete awards
U.S. military personnel having received these awards have participated within these areas of combat/conflict during the time these awards were given to U.S. service members. Such awards have since been discontinued or are no longer applicable in terms of receiving these commendations. Certain decorations remain inactive at this time (e.g. National Defense Service Medal) but may be reactivated at a later date in the future.
Post World War II, Cold War Service, Occupation Medals
Army of Occupation Medal
Navy Occupation Service Medal
Medal for Humane Action
National Defense Service Medal
Korean Service Medal
Vietnam Service Medal
Post Cold War Campaign Medals
Southwest Asia Service Medal
Kosovo Campaign Medal
Afghanistan Campaign Medal
Iraq Campaign Medal
Service and training decorations
Naval Reserve Medal
Marine Corps Reserve Ribbon
Fleet Marine Force Ribbon
Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medal
Air Force Military Training Instructor Ribbon
Air Force Recruiter Ribbon
Marksmanship
Navy Distinguished Marksman and Pistol Shot Ribbon
Navy Distinguished Marksman Ribbon
Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot Ribbon
Discontinued or proposed
The following decorations were designed for issuance with an approved medal, but were either never officially approved for presentation or were discontinued before a first award could be made.
Ribbon/award name
Personal decorations
Distinguished Warfare Medal
Combat service decorations
Combat Recognition Ribbon
Ribbon/award name
General service award
Cold War Victory Medal
Single service awards
Single service awards were official military decorations created as one time awards to recognize a single event. The first such single service award was issued during the Spanish–American War by the Revenue Cutter Service to honor the actions of the vessel USRC Hudson during the Battle of Cárdenas. The last single service award was issued in 1960 when Congress authorized the awarding of the Four Chaplains' Medal recognizing the Four Chaplains who died together during World War II. There have been no single service awards issued since by the U.S. military, mainly due to the decline and complications of awarding commemorative service medals.
Ribbon/award name
Personal valor decorations
Four Chaplains' Medal
Personal commemorative decorations
Cardenas Medal of Honor
NC-4 Medal
Ribbon/award name
Exploratory commemorative decorations
Peary Polar Expedition Medal
Byrd Antarctic Expedition Medal
Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition Medal
Unofficial decorations
Unofficial decorations are those military awards created and issued by local commanders. In most cases, unofficial awards were designed to commemorate a specific battle or engagement of a commander's unit. The most well known unofficial awards were issued during the American Civil War.
Ribbon/award name
Civil War decorations
Kearny Cross
Kearny Medal
Butler Medal
No ribbon
Gillmore Medal
Ribbon/award name
Research decorations
Walter Reed Medal
After the Civil War, stricter military regulations prohibited local commanders from issuing awards and the practice had fallen into disuse by the 20th century. Even so, the Department of Defense has stated that large numbers of unofficial medals were privately issued to members of the Armed Forces of the United States for many years after the Civil War, mostly to commemorate specific battles, events, or as private veteran memorabilia. One of the more well known is the Walter Reed Medal (recognized today as a Congressional Gold Medal), awarded for exploratory scientific achievement in the field of malaria treatment. While presented as a gold medallion, members of the military were reported to wear a red ribbon on their uniforms to denote the decoration.
Foreign and international awards
Foreign and international decorations are authorized for wear on United States military uniforms by the Department of Defense in accordance with established regulations for the receipt of such awards as outlined by the State Department. In the case of foreign decorations, the awards may be divided into senior service decorations (awarded only to high ranking U.S. officers), heroic decorations for valor, and foreign service decorations.
There are hundreds of foreign and international awards which have been approved for issuance to United States military personnel since World War I, the following being among the more common.
During the First and Second World Wars, the Croix de Guerre medals of France and Belgium, as well as the French Military Medal and Luxembourg War Cross, were further issued as unit citation cords, known as Fourragère. Service members could receive both the individual award and the unit cord; in the case of the later, the unit citation could either be worn temporarily while a member of the unit or permanently if the service member was present during the actual battle which warranted the unit citation. A further unit citation cord of the Order of William of the Netherlands was also issued during World War II, and was far more commonly known as the "Orange Lanyard".
As of 2002, South Korea has again issued the Korean Presidential Unit Citation to certain units of the United States Marine Corps, thus placing this previously obsolete foreign award back on the active order of precedence for U.S. decorations. Apart from this one decoration, most 21st century foreign military awards are reserved for only the most senior flag and general officers and then only presented as "end of tour" decorations upon transfer from a major command.
Identification badges of the uniformed services of the United States
Unofficial combat badges of the United States Army
List of military decorations
State decoration
Army-Navy "E" Award
Medal inflation
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