The Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award is the highest

civilian award A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civilian engag ...

given by the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

. 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 th
DoD civilian workforce
since the 1950's.

First recipient

Originally, the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal was awarded by

United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, als ...

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 Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

Secretary of Defense Honorary Awards2021 DoD press release2020 DoD press release2019 DoD press release2017 DoD press release2016 DoD press release2015 DOD press release2014 DOD press release
*DONHQ
1999 DOD press release
Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award {{ODM-stub

First recipient

See also

References