Vermont Veterans Medals

Vermont awards three State medals under Title 20, chapter 83, and the eligibility rules are more precise than the recognition pages suggest. The Vermont Veterans' Medal, section 1546, is presented by the Office of Veterans Affairs to an individual who completed a minimum two-year tour of federal active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, unless discharged for the convenience of the government or retired from a reserve component, and received an honorable discharge. It also reaches someone who died before separating from federal active duty, someone declared missing in action by the Department of Defense, and a person currently on federal active duty in good standing with more than four years of service. The Vermont Distinguished Service Medal, section 1545, is presented by the Governor and requires service on federal active duty in a combat theater of operations during a war or emergency. The statute evidences that three ways: service during any period of war prior to April 6, 1916; foreign service during World War I or World War II; or receipt of federal decorations showing combat-related service since January 1, 1947. Both medals share a residence test that is written as three alternatives, and the third is the one people assume disqualifies them. The individual must be a current resident of Vermont, or have been a resident of Vermont at the time of entry into military service, or have been mobilized to federal active duty while a member of the Vermont National Guard or another reserve unit located in Vermont, regardless of the individual's home of record. A soldier from another state mobilized with a Vermont unit is eligible. Both may be awarded posthumously, and where the individual is deceased the medal goes to the individual's spouse, child, parent, sibling, or grandchild. That list is wider than next of kin and reaches a grandchild directly. The Patriot's Medal, section 1547, is different in kind. The Governor or the Governor's designee shall present it, with a certificate, to the families of Vermont residents killed in action while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces after February 28, 1961, and to the family of a resident or nonresident member of the Vermont National Guard or another Vermont-based reserve unit killed in action after that date. The medals match as closely as possible the original sets first presented on September 21, 1996. This one is a duty on the Governor, not a discretion, and it is not applied for in the same way. Applications for the Veterans' Medal and the Distinguished Service Medal go to the Office of Veterans Affairs, which designs, casts, and procures the medals and keeps the records. An approved applicant can choose to receive the medal by mail or at a ceremony, and the Office holds a ceremony in November. The statutes go to some length about the objects themselves. The medals conform to MIL-DTL-3943, the ribbons to MIL-DTL-11589, and the lapel buttons to MIL-DTL-11484, with the State specification sheets and original models kept by the Secretary of State. The Veterans' Medal carries a relief replica of the Vermont coat of arms with the words "Vermont National Defense" and "1777", the great seal on the reverse, and a ribbon in the four primary colors of the coat of arms: green, blue, yellow, and red. No disability rating is involved.