Unit Awards
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| Distinguished Unit Citation -Army Presidential Unit Citation | Navy Presidential Unit Citation | Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation | Army
Meritorious Unit Commendation
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Army Meritorious Unit Commendation Pre 1961
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French Medaille Militaire Fourragere | French Croix de Guerre Fourragere | Belgian Croix de Guerre Fourragere |
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| Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau Shoulder Cord | Republic of the Philippines Presidential Unit Citation | ||
The a awards shown above are unit awards, which are awarded to every member of select units, for exceptional service during a specific period of time. Members of unit who were present when their unit as cited are authorized to continue to wear these awards even after they leave the cited unit. Members who join the unit after the period specific for an award are authorized to wear the award only while assigned to the unit which was cited.
There is no corresponding medals for these
awards, and since they are awarded to whole units they are not considered
decorations. Many people confuse the Belgian and French Croix de Guerre
Fourageres which are should cords awarded to units with individual Croix de Guerres which are decorations awarded to individuals, and consist of a ornate
bronze cross suspended from a ribbon. Entitlement to a Croix de Guerre Fouragere
does not necessarily indicate an entitlement to a Croix Guerre. FYI Croix de
Guerre translates to War Cross.
For a unit to be entitled to were a Fouragere it must have
been cited twice in the Order of the Day of the French or Belgian Armies
respectively. Therefore if a unit as cited only once it is not entitled to wear
a Fouragere. Note that if a unit was cited four times in the Orders of the Day
of the French Army then it is entitled to wear the Medaille Militaire Fouragere
in lieu of the Croix de Guerre Fouragere. Several US units received this honor,
Section No. 646, US Army Ambulance Service earned this honor during World War I.
Several other US units earned this honor as well but the first two citations were during WWI with the subsequent citations
coming during WWII. There are differences between the WWI and the WWII versions
of each fouragere, mainly being the ratio of the colors in each fouragere. If a
unit was cited enough times in the French Army's Order of the Day it's fouragere
would then be a solid red, the color of the Legion of Honor. Currently I don't know of any
US units to receive this award.
The Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau is also a unit award not to be confused with the actually Order of the Orange-Nassau. To the best of my knowledge the only US units to receive this honor were the airborne forces that participated in Operation Market Garden in the Fall of 1944, to include possibility some of the Troop Carrier Squadrons that delivered the troops to the drop zones.
The Distinguished Unit Citation as it was known during WWII under went a name change after the war and is now known as the Army Presidential Unit Citation. The Army Meritorious Unit Award initially was a patch worn near the cuff of the service uniform, around 1965 this patch was replaced by a solid red ribbon surrounding by a gold border identical to the Army Presidential Unit Citation.
If you are interested in information about which Army units received unit awards during WWII & the Korean War, you will be please to hear that I'm planning on releasing a reference which will specific each unit's campaign credits and unit awards received during those two wars. This work covers every army unit not just major combat commands. It does not cover Army Air Force nor Air Force units. Link