Medal for civilians created

The freshly minted Medal for the Defense of Freedom will be awarded to about 90 civilian Defense Department employees who were casualties in the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

“They are combat casualties,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. “They paid for our liberty with their lives.”

U.S. military personnel seriously wounded or killed in the attacks will be given traditional Purple Hearts. It has not yet been determined how many are eligible, defense officials said.

Most of those eligible for the Defense of Freedom Medal were at the Pentagon at the time of the attack. But defense officials said there may be a small number who were working at the World Trade Center or aboard one of the hijacked jets. Those people are also eligible.

Rumsfeld will decide case by case whether someone other than a civilian defense worker is eligible. One such case may be a private contractor working on a project at the Pentagon at the time of the attacks.

Current and retired military personnel, while supportive of some kind of civilian award to recognize the extraordinary nature of the attacks, jealously guard the Purple Heart, first awarded by Gen. George Washington in 1783, as a sacrosanct military honor.

Veterans groups have been urging lawmakers to create a separate medal for civilians.

“We’re very pleased that they came up with an alternative,” said John Kirby, adjutant general of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

The Defense of Freedom Medal is engraved with a bald eagle, framed in a golden circle, holding a shield that symbolizes the principles of freedom. The medal’s back is inscribed with “On Behalf of a Grateful Nation.”

The ribbon attached to the medal is red, white and blue. There are four stripes on the red portion of the ribbon representing the four jets hijacked Sept. 11. A blue stripe represents the attack on the Pentagon.

“The establishment [of the medal] is a fitting honor and tribute to the extraordinary dedication of the department’s civilian workforce,” said Rumsfeld. “It’s also a recognition that the world has changed.”