Joint Meritorious Unit Award — Military Decorations
Joint Meritorious Unit Award Medal and Ribbon Design Images
What is the Joint Meritorious Unit Award Decoration?
The Joint Meritorious Unit Award is a ribbon, enclosed in a gold frame. The ribbon is very similar to the Defense Superior Service Medal, indicative of the fact that the service performed would warrant the award of the medal to an individual.
The Ribbon is a symmetrical design. It has two thin yellow stripes on the ends flanked on both sides by bluebird stripes and a trio of stripes in the centre. The central stripes are a maroon stripes flanked by two white stripes.
The United States military sorts decorations into categories called Classes and Types. The Joint Meritorious Unit Award medal is classified as a Unit Award of the type Presidential Unit Citation.
How Do You Earn the Joint Meritorious Unit Award?
The Joint Meritorious Unit Award is the only ribbon award granted by the Department of Defense and is the organizational equivalent of the Defense Superior Service Medal. It is awarded to joint units or activities where the joint activity must either report through Unified, Combined, or Specified Command channels or pursue a joint mission under the cognizance of the Secretary of Defense; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the commander of a Unified, Specified or Combined Command that is also a joint command; or the Secretary of a military department that has been designated the Executive Agent for the Secretary of Defense.
Displaying the Joint Meritorious Unit Award
The Order of Precedence of the Joint Meritorious Unit Award is 43, and this precedence is used when placing the associated service ribbon on your uniform ribbon rack. You can see a full list of decorations in the order of precedence on the Decorations homepage.
All members of the unit may wear the decoration, whether or not they personally participated in the acts for which the unit was cited. Only those assigned to the unit at the time of the action cited may wear the decoration as a permanent award.
Subsequent awards are denoted by oak leaf clusters. It is worn after presidential unit citations and before the Valorous Unit Award.
Joint Meritorious Unit Award Associated Branches
Army |
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Navy |
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Marine Corps |
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Air Force |
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Coast Guard |
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Joint Meritorious Unit Award Associated Branches
Army |
|
Navy |
|
Marine Corps |
 |
Air Force |
|
Coast Guard |
|
Joint Meritorious Unit Award and the Stolen Valor Act
The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 is a federal law that makes it illegal for any person to falsely claim to be the recipient of certain military awards, "with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit by convincing another that he or she received the award".This decoration is covered by the Stolen Valor act. Fraudulently claiming to have received a Joint Meritorious Unit Award can result in punishment including a fine, imprisonment for not more than one year, or both
