The National Defense Service Medal is a military decoration of the United States military originally commissioned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Created in 1953, the National Defense Service Medal was intended to be a “blanket campaign medal” awarded to any member of the United States military who served honorably during a designated time period of which a “national emergency” had been declared.
In the fifty years since the creation of the National Defense Service Medal, it is only authorized for the following time periods.
The National Defense Service Medal is awarded to anyone who serves on active duty in the United States military during the above time periods. For service in the Gulf War and War on Terrorism, it is also authorized for members of the military reserve or national guard who are ordered to active duty for reasons other than military training. The National Defense Service Medal is further authorized to students at the service academies after they are sworn in as military officers, but is not granted to discharged or retired veterans who did not serve in one of the above time periods. The decoration is not authorized to members of the inactive reserve component.
Since the National Defense Service Medal has no other award criteria, except that a recipient must simply join the military, it is generally considered a low ranking service medal in the order of precedence for wear and display of U.S. military medals. There is also not a time limit imposed for the medals issuance, meaning that someone who joins the military for simply a few days, and then receives an entry level discharge, would technically be entitled to the National Defense Service Medal. Although, in practice, military clerks will not add the NDSM on a DD Form 214 if the service member performed duty for less than 90 days or the completion of their initial entry training. This accounts for the medal being omitted from a large number of "Uncharacterized" and "Entry Level" Separation Documents of individuals
Multiple awards of the National Defense Service Medal are authorized for members of the military who served in more than one of the eligible time periods; such additional awards are denoted by service stars. A second award of the medal is not granted for reenlisting during the same time period or transferring between branches of service.
