Combat Readiness Medal
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The Combat Readiness Medal is a military decoration of the United States Air Force which was first created in 1964. The original Combat Readiness Medal was an award senior to the Air Force Commendation Medal and was awarded for superior and meritorious duty to the United States Air Force. The award criteria for the medal was changed in 1967 and the Combat Readiness Medal adopted the designation as a campaign service award.
The current Combat Readiness Medal is awarded to any member of U.S. Air Force, or Air Force Reserve, who have accomplished sustained individual combat mission readiness or who have undertaken the preparedness for direct weapon-system employment. A service member must have completed 24 cumulative months of sustained duty performance for the medal to be received.
The Combat Readiness Medal is awarded as a service decoration by an Air Force Major Headquarters. In many cases, those receiving the award have also qualified for the Air Medal or the Aerial Achievement Medal. It is not uncommon for service members to receive two, or all three, of the medals simultaneously.
The medal was designed by the Institute of Heraldry, on the obverse it has an inverted triangle on top of a delta-swept winglike object, both representing supersonic aircraft. This design is enclosed by a stylized compass rose with triangles at the points indicating the world-wide nature of the mission of the Air Force. The reverse of the medal has the inscription, "For Combat Readiness--Air Force" in a circle, near the outer edge of the medal. The ribbon has a wide center stripe of red, flanked on either side by a narrow stripe of light blue, thin stripe of dark blue, narrow stripe of light blue with a stripe of red at the edge.
Multiple awards of the Combat Readiness Medal are authorized, with additional decorations denoted by oak leaf clusters.
