ABSTRACT
Medals and Decorations Military medals generally fall into four broad cat egories. Decorations are individual awards given to specific people for heroism, outstanding achieve ment, or for meritorious service over a period of time. Campaign and service medals denote partici pation in a campaign or other specified service. Good conduct medals are based on the length and quality of an individual’s service. Finally, qualifi cation medals denote skill or achievement in a specific field (i.e., marksmanship). Decorations carry the greatest prestige because they represent achievement above and beyond what is ordinarily expected.
