Badge of Military Merit

The Badge of Military Merit is considered the first military award of the United States Armed Forces. Although the Fidelity Medallion is older, after being issued to three soldiers for a specific event in 1780 it was never awarded again, so the Badge of Military Merit is often considered the oldest. The Purple Heart is the official successor decoration of the Badge of Military Merit.

Read more about Badge Of Military Merit:  History, Recipients, Other Recipients, Status of Original Badges, Disuse

Famous quotes containing the words badge of, badge, military and/or merit:

    Signor Antonio, many a time and oft
    In the Rialto you have rated me
    About my moneys and my usances.
    Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
    For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
    You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog,
    And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
    And all for use of that which is mine own.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman,—repose in energy.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.
    Václav Havel (b. 1936)

    What I shall have to say here is neither difficult nor contentious; the only merit I should like to claim for it is that of being true, at least in parts.
    —J.L. (John Langshaw)