Design
In conjunction with the Army Institute of Heraldry, the medal was designed by Susan Gamble, a professional artist and Master Designer for the U.S. Mint. Her husband, Mike Gamble, is an Air Force colonel, and she was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, "It was just a real pleasure to give this back to the Air Force that's been part of my life." She based the medal on an insignia painted on an aircraft piloted in World War I by General Billy Mitchell, generally known as the father of the Air Force.
A laurel wreath surrounds an eagle emblem executed in a simple, linear Art Deco style. The eagle faces right, over the right talon clutching arrows, to reflect that this is a combat medal. The left talon clutches an olive branch. The ribbon's diagonal stripe at first could not be manufactured in the United States; but military medals cannot be manufactured outside the U.S. This design problem was resolved when a mill in Bally, Pennsylvania, Bally Ribbon Mills, bought a new loom specifically to weave the diagonal stripe. A Rhode Island firm, Ira Green Inc. in Providence, made the metal parts.
The medal is the only Federal award of the United States military to have a diagonally patterned ribbon, much like various British awards (such as the Distinguished Flying Cross).
Read more about this topic: Air Force Combat Action Medal
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“Westerners inherit
A design for living
Deeper into matter—
Not without due patter
Of a great misgiving.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life ... for fear that I should get some of his good done to me,—some of its virus mingled with my blood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I begin with a design for a hearse.
For Christ’s sake not black—
nor white either—and not polished!
Let it be weathered—like a farm wagon—”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)