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:
“He said, truly, that the reason why such greatly superior numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisoners confessed, because they lacked a cause,—a kind of armor which he and his party never lacked. When the time came, few men were found willing to lay down their lives in defense of what they knew to be wrong; they did not like that this should be their last act in this world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Cows sometimes wear an expression resembling wonderment arrested on its way to becoming a question. In the eye of superior intelligence, on the other hand, lies the nil admirari spread out like the monotony of a cloudless sky.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In the service of Caesar, everything is legitimate.”
—Pierre Corneille (1606–1684)