Year Authorized:
2004
General Description:
Authorized under Public Law 108-234 by President George W. Bush on May 28th, 2004. Enacted under Executive Order 13363 (EO13363) November 29th of that year.
Award Criteria (as detailed by various official sources):
A) To be eligible for the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, a service member must be assigned or attached to a unit participating in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM for 30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days in Afghanistan or meet one of the following criteria:
1) Be engaged in actual combat against the enemy and under circumstances involving grave danger of death or serious bodily injury from enemy action, regardless of the time in Afghanistan.
2) While participating in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM or on official duties, regardless of time, is killed, wounded, or injured requiring medical evacuation from Afghanistan.
B) While participating as a regularly assigned aircrew member flying sorties into, out of, within, or over Afghanistan in direct support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM; each day that one or more sorties are flown in accordance with these criteria shall count as one day towards the 30 consecutive or 60 nonconsecutive day requirement.
Service members who qualified for the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal by reason of service in Afghanistan between Oct. 24, 2001 and April 30, 2005 shall remain qualified for that medal. However, any service member who wishes to do so may be awarded the Afghanistan Campaign Medal in lieu of the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal for that timeframe of service. Additionally, any Army Soldier authorized the arrowhead device may be awarded the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with arrowhead device in lieu of the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal with arrowhead device.
No service member shall be entitled to both the Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal for the same act, achievement, or period of service.
Only one award of the Afghanistan Campaign Medal may be authorized for any individual.
In April 2008, the DOD authorized campaign stars to recognize service members for participating in the following campaigns:
-Liberation of Afghanistan: Sept. 11, 2001 � Nov. 30, 2001
-Consolidation I: Dec. 1, 2001 � Sept. 30, 2006
-Consolidation II: Oct. 1, 2006 � Nov. 30, 2009
-Consolidation III: Dec. 1, 2009 � June 30, 2011
-Transition I: July 1, 2011 � Dec. 31, 2014
-Transition II (Note 1): Jan. 1, 2015 � TBD
**Note 1: For Operation FREEDOM's SENTINEL pursuant to USD(P&R) memorandum dated Feb. 13, 2015, titled, "Afghanistan Campaign Medal � Operation FREEDOM's SENTINEL and Transition II Campaign Phase."
One bronze campaign star shall be worn for each campaign served. A silver campaign star will be worn instead of five bronze stars.
User Tags Detailing this Ribbon:
green red black white blue enduring freedom afghanistan united states uscg usarmy usaf usn usarmy
