The Joint Meritorious Unit Award (JMUA) is a US military award that was established on June 4, 1981, by Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and was implemented by

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

Directive 1348.27 dated July 22, 1982. The Joint Meritorious Unit Award was made retroactive to January 23, 1979.

History

Authorized by the Secretary of Defense on June 10, 1981, this award was originally called the Department of Defense Meritorious Unit Award. It is awarded in the name of the Secretary of Defense to joint activities for meritorious achievement or service, superior to that which is normally expected, for actions in the following situations; combat with an armed enemy of the United States, a declared national emergency, or under extraordinary circumstances that involve national interests. The first organization to receive the Joint Meritorious Unit Award was the "Electronic Warfare During Close Air Support Joint Test Force" which was awarded the decoration on September 30, 1982. The JMUA was also awarded to U.S. Marines and the U.S. Navy who served in Somalia in the early 1990s. It was awarded for

Operation Praying Mantis Operation Praying Mantis was the 18 April 1988 attack by the United States on Iranian naval targets in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for the mining of a U.S. warship four days earlier. On 14 April, the American guided missile frigate stru ...

in 1988. Returning Navy units were to receive a Presidential Unit Citation, but it was downgraded after

Iran Air Flight 655 Iran Air Flight 655 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas that was shot down on 3July 1988 by two surface-to-air missiles fired by , a United States Navy warship. The missiles hit the Iran Air ...

was shot down by . The Joint Meritorious Unit Award is a ribbon, enclosed in a gold frame. Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard recipients wear a different, smaller frame than do U.S. Army, as the latters' unit awards are displayed at a different location on the uniform. The ribbon is very similar to the

Defense Superior Service Medal The Defense Superior Service Medal (DSSM) is a military decoration of the United States Department of Defense, which is presented to United States Armed Forces service members who perform superior meritorious service in a position of significant ...

, indicative of it signifying that the unit must have performed service of a character comparable to it, which, if performed by an individual, would warrant the award of the medal. Subsequent decorations of the Joint Meritorious Unit Award are annotated with

oak leaf cluster An oak leaf cluster is a ribbon device to denote preceding decorations and awards consisting of a miniature bronze or silver twig of four oak leaves with three acorns on the stem. It is authorized by the United States Armed Forces for a spec ...

s.Fact Sheet: Joint Meritorious Unit Award
, Air Force Personnel Center, date accessed 2011-04-05.

References

External links

* {{US interservice decorations Awards and decorations of the United States Department of Defense Awards established in 1981