Two bills were introduced into Congress to authorize a Cold War Service Medal to eligible veterans who served during that period (1946-1991). The first is Senate bill (S. 2743). Here is a short press release:

"WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senators Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), Jim Webb (D-Va.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) today introduced the Cold War Service Medals Act of 2009, bipartisan legislation to authorize the secretaries of the military departments to award Cold War Service Medals to American veterans. To date, no medal exists to honor the men and women who served and defended the United States during the Cold War.

The second companion bill is in the House of Representatives. It is bill (H.R. 4051) which was introduced by Rep. Steve Israel (NY-2). It also calls for the authorization of a Cold War Service Medal to eligible service members.

For over a decade Cold War Vets have been fighting for the creation and authorization of a Cold War Service Medal to honor their service. Over the years legislation has been introduced in Congress only for it to be later stripped out in conference committee.

November 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. We are hoping that this legislation will finally become reality so that all Cold War Vets can receive the proper recognition they deserve.

Please contact your Senators and ask them to co-sponsor senate bill (S.2743) Also contact your congressman and ask them to co-sponsor house bill (H.R. 4051). We need as many co-sponsors as possible to make this a reality!

Thanks in advance for all of your help!

John

What?
Who wants a medal?

quote:

Originally posted by galloglas:
What?
Who wants a medal?

Considering that millions of service members served during the Cold War I would guess "quite a few"!

You might want to go on the DOD website and go check out the recent poll. They asked people to submit questions and then vote on the ones they thought were important. The top 5 questions would be answered by Secretary Robert Gates (still waiting on his response).

Out of 99 questions submitted and over 40,000 votes there was one question that came in #1 far above all others with an 83.7% vote. The question was:

"Secretary Gates: Are you in favor of, and will you issue a Cold War Victory Medal this Year?"

I realize most active duty service members will not benefit from these two bills in Congress unless they have over 20 years of service under their belt and served during the tail end of the Cold War. I'd like to ask folks to please take into consideration the older vets who came before you and did their part to defend America against communist aggression. It's time for them to be properly recognized for their service.

My active dates of service were Apr '57 thru Nov '77. I do not see a need for this Medal. Just an expense not justified given the current economy. The cost of this could be spent on those who are giving their lives today on the field of combat. Pay raises or maybe more to assist those who have given theer limbs and families that have lost their loved ones. I feel that I was given much more than I received while serving this great country. What does this do for we old timers anyway?

this gesture "don't mean nuthin" it is nothing more then the "everyone's a winner" attitude being carried out.

Hell, before you know it our members in Congress and the Senate will be wanting ribbons to denote the many and varied battles they encounter each and every day - we should all appreciate the fact that it's a tough battle they wage on our behalf, and their sacrifice is overwhelming and should not be taken lightly. However one ribbon I would support for them is one that denotes "I actually worked a 40 hour week - for 1 whole month" or "I declined my COLA increase" or "I really did vote the way my constituants wanted", oh there are so many they'd end up looking like some 4 star w/40yrs and 10 wars under his belt.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: m551sheridan,

quote:

Originally posted by m551sheridan:
this gesture "don't mean nuthin" it is nothing more then the "everyone's a winner" attitude being carried out.

I respect your opinion but if we use that same logic then I guess we'd have to revoke the Civil War Campaign Medal that was issued to Civil War Vets in 1905...40 years after the wars end!

Let's also not forget the Indian Wars Medal awarded in 1905 to vets who fought in the Indian Wars from 1790-1891.

If we really wanted to play devil's advocate one could make the case that we don't need the Iraq Campaign Medal or the Afghanistan Campaign Medal because after all...we have that wonderful Global War on Terrorism Medal which covers the same time period anyway.

I don't mean to sound sarcastic but do you understand my point?

Will that be serve with ice?

quote:

Originally posted by rocketman69:
I don't mean to sound sarcastic but do you understand my point?

I understand your point perfectly... I'm just in agreement with Roger above that there are most likely more important issues that our congressmembers could be spending their time on.

I thought the NDSM covered all this stuff. If We had medals for every Incident, Conflict or War, We wouldn't have enough chest to Pin them on. IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by mikeyR8:
I thought the NDSM covered all this stuff. If We had medals for every Incident, Conflict or War, We wouldn't have enough chest to Pin them on. IMO.

Many people assume that as well. The NDSM only covered periods of conflict or "national emergency" The dates covered are:

The National Defense Service Medal was awarded for honorable active service for any period between 27 June 1950 and 27 July 1954; between 1 January 1961 and 14 August 1974; between 2 August 1990 and 30 November 1995 and between 11 September 2001 and a closing date to be determined.

As you can see there are large gaps where service members would not be covered by the NDSM.

I repeat my basic question. Of what value is this to the veterans of the cold war? Very few of us wear our uniforms, mine has been in the closet since I retired. Who do we show it to that would care. Wasted money! In most of those instances you noted in the past, the medals were for combat and these were far more deserved that those of us who were involved in a long term deterrent situation. President Ronald Reagan was the reason for the defeat of the Soviets without firing a single shot. Given the support needed to fulfill our mission,we did our job well and that is why the US was successful

caviat:not a cold war vet, but stats is one of my favorite subjects and since you posted this on all the boards.....

quote:

Out of 99 questions submitted and over 40,000 votes there was one question that came in #1 far above all others with an 83.7% vote. The question was:

40000? first point, how many served in the military during that time period, so therefore what percentage of Cold war vets does this represent?

Second, how many of those who voted are Cold War vets? And how was it verified?

third. this pollis a bit more telling....its one on what policies are the most important, not one on what a few want the the Secretary to answer.

Looking at the page, where do you see that 40000 even voted?

quote:

Looking at the page, where do you see that 40000 even voted?

It says it on the top of the page right under "Poll Status: Poll Complete"

sorry, wasnt showing when I clicked

Still havent answered the other questions though

Just 'cause you want someone to answer a question on something does not mean you want it to occur.

quote:

Originally posted by catherine0830:
sorry, wasnt showing when I clicked

Still havent answered the other questions though

Just 'cause you want someone to answer a question on something does not mean you want it to occur.

catherine,

I really can't give you the stats on the questions you asked simply because of the fact I'm not running the poll.

I agree....out of millions of Cold War Vets 40,000 is a drop in the bucket. The way the poll was conducted there is likely no way to figure out how many Cold War Vets voted in the poll.

I don't mean to offend anyone here but I have to be honest that I've been a bit surprised and disappointed by some of the negative (and at times nasty) comments regarding this subject. I figured by posting on a military forum I could get the word out and hopefully gain some support.

I guess I was wrong in the assumption that fellow vets and service members would support one another on this type of issue.

I'll just stick to contacting the Legion, VFW, and Disabled Vets. The reaction with many of these groups is overwhelmingly positive unlike what I've seen here.

Sorry for wasting your time folks.

It's not that you wasted our time, It's just that some of us do not feel that it's a big deal to get a medal for being there when your country needed you and most of us has been out of service for more then 20 yrs. The thought is good,but the medal is not needed...

quote:

Originally posted by rocketman69:

quote:

Originally posted by catherine0830:
sorry, wasnt showing when I clicked

Still havent answered the other questions though

Just 'cause you want someone to answer a question on something does not mean you want it to occur.

catherine,

I really can't give you the stats on the questions you asked simply because of the fact I'm not running the poll.

I agree....out of millions of Cold War Vets 40,000 is a drop in the bucket. The way the poll was conducted there is likely no way to figure out how many Cold War Vets voted in the poll.

I don't mean to offend anyone here but I have to be honest that I've been a bit surprised and disappointed by some of the negative (and at times nasty) comments regarding this subject. I figured by posting on a military forum I could get the word out and hopefully gain some support.

I guess I was wrong in the assumption that fellow vets and service members would support one another on this type of issue.

I'll just stick to contacting the Legion, VFW, and Disabled Vets. The reaction with many of these groups is overwhelmingly positive unlike what I've seen here.

Sorry for wasting your time folks.

Nothing was said that was nasty or negative. I would have to assume that I am one of those you were referring to in your post. There is nothing wrong with taking a position even though some of us disagree. Few even commented on this issue. It really doesn't matter what your position is on any topic, there will be those who will disagree with you. Lot of experience with that one. Keep up your postings and don't get sensative or you won't last long on here. Only time will tell if this is something worthy of our time and money.

quote:

Originally posted by RogerCollins:

Nothing was said that was nasty or negative. I would have to assume that I am one of those you were referring to in your post. There is nothing wrong with taking a position even though some of us disagree. Few even commented on this issue. It really doesn't matter what your position is on any topic, there will be those who will disagree with you. Lot of experience with that one. Keep up your postings and don't get sensative or you won't last long on here. Only time will tell if this is something worthy of our time and money.

Roger,

That comment was more directed at a couple other duplicate threads I posted. Specifically in the Marine & Navy forums. Sorry...I should have clarified that in my response. A couple members got nasty with their childish responses and one edited one of my quotes when replying and claimed I didn't know what I was talking about.

For the record...I respect everyone's opinion even if I don't agree. It's the small percentage of flammers with their childish replies that get to me. I know...I should just ignore it.

Thanks for all of your replies!

quote:

Originally posted by catherine0830:
caviat:not a cold war vet, but stats is one of my favorite subjects and since you posted this on all the boards.....

quote:

Out of 99 questions submitted and over 40,000 votes there was one question that came in #1 far above all others with an 83.7% vote. The question was:

40000? first point, how many served in the military during that time period, so therefore what percentage of Cold war vets does this represent?

Second, how many of those who voted are Cold War vets? And how was it verified?

third. this pollis a bit more telling....its one on what policies are the most important, not one on what a few want the the Secretary to answer.

Looking at the page, where do you see that 40000 even voted?

Catherine0830,

Realizing that the question was not addressed to me, I'd nonetheless like to weigh in on this topic and address your three questions (regarding the Cold War Medal question getting 83.7% of 40,000 voters/respondants thinking that it was a good question) to the best of my abilities:

1)Rough guess would be 15-20 million served during the 1946-1991 period, but it is impossible to tell what percentage the 40,000 votes represents in the way of overall support. You could do it, I suppose, if you were absolutely certain that all 15-20 million had computers, had access to the web, were aware that DoD even had a website, visited the website during the 30-day period in which votes could be cast, noticed the picture/questionaire box (link), had enough interest to open it, then go through the registration process to cast their votes (yes or no) on 99 questions (with the Cold War Medal question being about 3/5 down the list, as I recall). The only thing we can actually tell with certainty is that a very high percentage (83.7) of the respondants thought this was a good question.

(As an aside, I disagree with your statement in another post that said, in its essentials, simply because people voted for the Cold War Medal did not mean that they supported one. True enough on a philosophical level, but you would be hard-pressed to convince me that 83.7% of the respondants voted YES in order for the SECDEF to eventually thunder a resounding NO. Possible? Yes. Likely? No.)

2)The percentage of respondants who were Cold War vets (and DoD verification thereof) is not an issue, unless you wish to disenfranchise relatives of Cold War vets or many other people that think a medal is worthwhile to commemorate a half-century struggle against Communism, which resulted in the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Empire and the liberation of tens of millions of people in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics of its "Near Abroad." Since Service medals have historical importance in their own right (and are part of the historical record of this Republic), there is little need to limit voting to Cold War vets.

3) While you are certainly entitled to your opinion that a Policy Poll is more important than a "Question to the SECDEF" poll, this remains an opinion only. In fact, there is quite a bit of overlap between the two polls, though obviously one poll's list is in the form of a question (like the TV show "Jeopardy"). Beyond this, unless you can demonstrate that the Policy poll items were all written by the staff and faculty of the Nation's War Colleges/Command and Staff Colleges while the "Ask the SECDEF a Question" poll were all penned by villiage idiots, I would contend that the polls are comparable in scope and content. Clearly, you are mistaken when you wrote that the policy poll's data are more important than "what a few people want." 40,000 is no small number of respondants in these DoD polls, demonstrated most clearly by DoD enthusiastically posting that number in the official poll results number. Tellingly, DoD posted no such vote tallies for the Policy Issues.

In any case, with the small amount of hard data that is at our disposal, I would contend that the Cold War Medal is a popular concept, and one that may become even more so during the next two years, as nations across Europe and the former Soviet Union (though not Russia, of course) hold 20-year anniversaries of events beginning with the fall of the Berlin Wall (Nov 1989) and the collapse of the Soviet Union (Dec 1991.

USMC_Kinda_Guy

They could just add those of us who served during the cold war to the National Defense Service Medal eligibility. That way those who served during overlap periods would already have the medal.