From Military.com:
“The Global
War on Terrorism Service Medal Won't Be Handed Out to Everyone Anymore”
The Department
of Defense will no longer issue the Global War on Terrorism Medal to all service
members, ending a two-decade period during which the award was given to
everyone in the ranks to signify America's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The medal isn't going away; it's just becoming more selective. Starting Sept.
11, 2022, a service member must have worked directly for a counterterrorism
operation for at least 30 days to receive the award."These changes were
prompted by the DoD based on the withdrawal of combat troops from Afghanistan
and the mission in Iraq now being an advise/assist/train mission," Army
Maj. Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesman, told Military.com in an .
The Global War
on Terrorism Medal has been given to nearly every active-duty, Reserve and
National Guard service member since it was established in 2003. Service members
were eligible for the award by working directly or indirectly for support in
anti-terrorism operations, which cast a broad net for anyone who served in
nearly any position since Sept. 11, 2001. The only major requirement was that a
service member needed to serve for 30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive
days in support of a Global War on Terror mission to be eligible for the award.
Under the new guidelines, the definition will be more rigid and won't include
those who indirectly offer administrative or logistics support for
anti-terrorism missions. Additionally, the Pentagon revised the criteria for
the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal. Previously, the award was given to those
in the ranks who were attached to a unit in Iraq or Syria and served for 30
consecutive or nonconsecutive days. As of July 1, the Inherent Resolve Campaign
Medal will be awarded only to those who serve in Syria -- including the
airspace and up to 12 nautical miles out at sea. "With the termination of
the combat mission in Iraq, personnel deployed to Iraq for Op Inherent Resolve
are now recognized with the GWOT Expeditionary Medal," Dietz said. The
criteria change for the awards is small, but symbolizes a more gradual movement
by the military and the country to signify a change in the United States'
decades-long involvement in the Middle East following 9/11, although those
decades have left a substantial toll.
The Costs of
War Project at Brown University estimated that the cost of the Global War on
Terror at $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths -- including U.S. service members,
allied fighters, opposition fighters, civilians, journalists and humanitarian
aid workers Nearly 7,000 American service members died in Afghanistan and Iraq,
a figure that doesn't include casualties from smaller U.S. operations in a
handful of other countries. "Twenty years from now, we'll still be
reckoning with the high societal costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars -- long
after U.S. forces are gone," Stephanie Savell, co-director of the Costs of
War Project and a senior research associate at the Watson Institute, wrote in a
September 2021 report from the organization. The final Afghanistan evacuation
effort in 2021 saw the last U.S. casualties of the war when a suicide bomber
struck at the airport's Abbey Gate on Aug. 26, killing 13 troops -- 11 Marines,
a sailor and a soldier; wounded more than 20 other troops; and killed or
wounded hundreds of Afghans.
^ This makes
sense. ^
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