The Defense Superior Service Medal (DSSM) is a senior United States military decoration of the Department of Defense, awarded to members of the United States armed forces who perform "superior meritorious service in a position of significant responsibility."
The decoration is most often presented to senior officers in the flag and general officer grades. The medal is presented in the name of the Secretary of Defense and was established by President Gerald R. Ford on February 6, 1976 in Executive Order 11904. It is somewhat analogous to the Legion of Merit, albeit awarded for service in a "joint" duty capacity.
Read more about Defense Superior Service Medal: Criteria, Appearance, Notable Recipients
Famous quotes containing the words defense, superior and/or service:
“From a bed in this hotel Seargent S. Prentiss arose in the middle of the night and made a speech in defense of a bedbug that had bitten him. It was heard by a mock jury and judge, and the bedbug was formally acquitted.”
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Whatever offices of life are performed by women of culture and refinement are thenceforth elevated; they cease to be mere servile toils, and become expressions of the ideas of superior beings.”
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“We too are ashes as we watch and hear
The psalm, the sorrow, and the simple praise
Of one whose promised thoughts of other days
Were such as ours, but now wholly destroyed,
The service record of his youth wiped out,
His dream dispersed by shot, must disappear.”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)