Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award
| Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award | |
|---|---|
| File:DoD Distinguished Civilian Service Award.png Ribbon of the medal | |
| Type | Civilian Medal |
| Country | File:Flag of the United States (23px).png United States |
| Presented by | File:Seal of the United States Department of Defense.svg United States Department of Defense |
| Eligibility | Career DoD civilian employees |
| Ribbon | File:USA - DoD Distinguished Civilian Service Award.svg |
| Reverse | File:DoD Distinguished Civilian Service Award REV.png |
| Precedence | |
| Next (lower) | Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award |
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The Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award is the highest civilian award given by the United States Department of Defense. This award and accompanying Distinguished Civilian Service Medal is the department's highest award given to career DoD civilian employees whose careers reflect exceptional devotion to duty and whose contributions to the efficiency, economy, or other improvements in DoD operations are of a significantly broad scope. This award has been bestowed annually to approximately 7 to 10 awardees (about 0.001%) of the DoD civilian workforce since the 1950's.
First recipient
[edit | edit source]Originally, the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal was awarded by United States Department of War for work in the intelligence service. Earl H. Pritchard was the first recipient of the award for his service from 1942 to 1945 when he was a civilian analyst with military intelligence during the Second World War.
