Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service | |
---|---|
Type | Civilian public service award |
Awarded for | Exceptionally distinguished service of significance to a DoD Component or function, or Department of Defense as a whole. |
Country | United States |
Presented by | U.S. Secretary of Defense |
Eligibility | Non-career federal employees, private citizens, and foreign nationals. |
Established | 1947 |
Precedence | |
Next (lower) | Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service |
The Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service is the highest award that is presented by the United States Secretary of Defense to a private citizen, politician, non-career federal employee, or foreign national. It is presented for exceptionally distinguished service of significance to the Department of Defense as a whole, or a DoD Component or function, where recognition at the component level would not be sufficient for the service rendered. [1]
To be eligible for consideration the individual must have rendered exceptionally distinguished service of significance to the Department of Defense as a whole. Recognition may also be given for distinguished service of such exceptional significance to a Department of Defense Component or Function that recognition at the Component level would be insufficient. The service or assistance may have been rendered at considerable personal sacrifice and inconvenience and should be motivated by patriotism, good citizenship, and a sense of public responsibility. [2]
Normally, it is required that nominees have a direct working relationship with the most senior officials in the Federal government, e.g., Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State. [3]
An individual may receive this award more than once with subsequent awards consisting of a bronze, silver, or gold palm, respectively. [2]
The award consists of a gold medal, a miniature medal, a rosette, and a citation signed by the Secretary of Defense. [2]
The obverse of the medal depicts an eagle facing to the right clutching three arrows, below the eagle is a half laurel wreath. Above the eagle are thirteen stars with rays between the stars. This imagery is identical to the seal of the Department of Defense. The reverse contains the inscription "TO...FOR DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC SERVICE TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE". The edge of the medallion is surrounded by a laurel wreath on both the obverse and reverse. The medal is suspended from ribbon containing one central strip in maroon, with a white stripe on each side separating it from two blue stripes, with a thin white stripe at each edge.
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high-ranking member of the federal cabinet. The secretary of defense's position of command and authority over the military is second only to that of the president of the United States, who is the commander-in-chief. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a defense minister in many other countries. The secretary of defense is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, and is by custom a member of the Cabinet and by law a member of the National Security Council.
Ehud Barak is an Israeli former general and politician who served as the tenth prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party between 1997 and 2001 and between 2007 and 2011.
Ryan Clark Crocker is a retired American diplomat who served as a career ambassador within the United States Foreign Service. A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he served as United States ambassador to Afghanistan (2011–2012), Iraq (2007–2009), Pakistan (2004–2007), Syria (1998–2001), Kuwait (1994–1997), and Lebanon (1990–1993). In January 2010, he became dean of Texas A&M University's George Bush School of Government and Public Service.
Leon Edward Panetta is an American retired politician and government official who has served under several Democratic administrations as secretary of defense (2011–2013), director of the CIA (2009–2011), White House chief of staff (1994–1997), director of the Office of Management and Budget (1993–1994), as well as a U.S. representative from California (1977–1993).
The Armed Forces Service Medal (AFSM) is a military award of the United States military that was created on January 11, 1996, by President Bill Clinton under Executive Order 12985. The AFSM is a deployed service medal that is presented to those service members who engage in "significant activity" for which no other U.S. campaign or service medal is authorized.
Ashton Baldwin Carter was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States secretary of defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
The NATO Medal is an international military decoration which is awarded to various militaries of the world under the authority of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It is manufactured by Eekelers-Centini Intl, of Hemiksem, Belgium.
The United States military inter-service awards and decorations are those medals and ribbons which may be awarded to all members of the six military branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. Each military department awards inter-service awards under the same criteria.
Awards and decorations of the United States government are civilian awards of the U.S. federal government which are typically issued for sustained meritorious service, in a civilian capacity, while serving in the U.S. federal government. Certain U.S. government awards may also be issued to military personnel of the United States Armed Forces and be worn in conjunction with awards and decorations of the United States military. In order of precedence, those U.S. non-military awards and decorations authorized for wear are worn after U.S. military personal decorations and unit awards and before U.S. military campaign and service awards.
William E. "Kip" Ward is a retired United States Army three-star general who served as the inaugural Commander of United States Africa Command from October 1, 2007 to March 8, 2011. During his long career in public service, he has taught international affairs and relations at West Point, US Military Academy; served as Commander of Stabilization Force, Operation Joint Forge, Sarajevo, Bosnia; was appointed the Secretary of State's Security Coordinator to the Israel - Palestinian Authority; Deputy Commander, Headquarters US European Command, Stuttgart, Germany; and many other progressively responsible assignments. He later retired and served as President and chief operating officer of the logistics, IT, and engineering business, Vectrus.
James George Stavridis is a retired United States Navy admiral and vice chair, global affairs, and a managing director-partner of The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, and chair of the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation. Stavridis serves as the chief international diplomacy and national security analyst for NBC News in New York. He is also chair emeritus of the board of directors of the United States Naval Institute and a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
John Rutherford Allen is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general, and former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A). On September 13, 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Allen as special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. He was succeeded in that role by Brett McGurk on October 23, 2015. He is the co-author of Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence with Darrell M. West and Future War and the Defence of Europe alongside Lieutenant General (Ret.) Ben Hodges and Professor Julian Lindley French. Allen was president of the Brookings Institution from October 2017 until his resignation on June 12, 2022.
Farah Pandith is an American academic of Indian descent. She was appointed the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities in June 2009 by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The position was made specifically for her after she briefed Secretary Clinton about her work in the Bush administration. She had the rare distinction of being a political appointee for two Republican presidents and President Obama. When she was the Special Representative she traveled to almost 100 countries. After serving under both Secretaries Clinton and John Kerry, she left government. She said she came to Washington after 9/11 again and wanted to serve – she left after more than a decade in public service. She worked at USAID and then went to the National Security Council and then the U.S. Department of State. When she left in 2014, she returned to her home state of Massachusetts.
Robert Orton Work is an American national security professional who served as the 32nd United States Deputy Secretary of Defense for both the Obama and Trump administrations from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that, Work was the United States Under Secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2013, and before that served as a colonel in the United States Marine Corps; Work retired in 2001 and worked as a civilian at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) and the George Washington University in various positions relating to military and strategic study. From 2013 to 2014, he was the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). After his time as Deputy Secretary of Defense, he went on to serve on the board of Raytheon. As of October 2023, he serves on the Special Competitive Studies Project's board of advisors.
Derek Chollet is an American foreign policy advisor and author serving as chief of staff to the United States Secretary of Defense. He served as the counselor of the United States Department of State from 2021 to 2024. Previously, Chollet was the executive vice president for security and defense policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. From 2012 to 2014, Chollet was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, where he managed U.S. defense policy involving Europe, NATO, the Middle East, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere for Secretaries of Defense Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel.
Mark Thomas Esper is an American politician and manufacturing executive who served as the 27th United States secretary of defense from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party, he had previously served as the 23rd U.S. secretary of the Army from November 2017 to July 2019.
Laura Katherine Cooper is an American civil servant. Ms. Cooper is the 2023 Federal Employee of the Year, awarded by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service to celebrate excellence in the U.S. federal civil service. She is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs in the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and a career member of the Senior Executive Service (SES). In 2023, she was honored with the Presidential Rank Distinguished Executive Award, the highest annual award for career SES members. She previously served as principal director in the office of the Homeland Defense and Global Security Affairs.