Heraldry Institute Delivers on Defense of Freedom Medal
Story and photo by Wayne V. Hall
MDW News Service

Fort Belvoir, Va., Oct. 4, 2001 "I wanted something that would represent strength and resolve, and what better to do that than with the eagle our national emblem," Sarah LeClerc related. The illustrator with the Institute of Heraldry designed the obverse side of the new Defense of Freedom medal.

"It has a position, or an intention of purpose. It looks like it is saying 'don't mess with me'," she said.

On Sept. 27 Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld unveiled the new medal in a Pentagon press conference.

Rumsfeld said the medal was designed to be the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart and will be awarded to those injured or killed in the line of duty.

Among the medal's first recipients will be the many Department of Defense civilians injured or killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon.

The Institute of Heraldry, located on Fort Belvoir, was tasked Sept. 14 with the mission of developing the medal, and quickly, said Fred N. Eichorn, director. "We had the designs to them [DoD officials] by Sept. 19, and it was done in extraordinarily short order."

The mission to design the medal was given to the institute's Creative Heraldry Division, which is responsible for designing military unit identification devices, Distinctive Unit Insignias and battalion flags for all of the military services, including the Coast Guard and Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

Because the tasking was presented to the Creative Heraldry staff on a Friday, they spent the weekend thinking about possible designs, and began putting their thoughts into drawn form Sept. 17.

"I didn't sleep well over the weekend," said John Sproston, Creative Heraldry chief. "I thought of coming into the office, but instead doodled [some designs] on paper.

The team wasn't given many details to work with in the beginning," Sproston said. "Our only instructions were to use red, white and blue; it was to be manufactured quickly, use patriotic symbols, and the medal was to be for civilian use and be equivalent to the Purple Heart, but not look like the Purple Heart."

"It was an enormous crunch. It strained us," said LeClerc, who also developed the design for the medal's ribbon. "We had to hup-to because we had to follow through," she said. The normal design process for something of this nature takes three to four months.

"We had to push everything else aside to design this," said LeClerc, who has worked at the institute for roughly 20 years.

The entire staff was more than happy to accept the challenge of putting their regular projects aside to develop the new medal.

"Everybody is still stunned and affected by it," LeClerc said, recalling the mood in the institute Sept. 14 when they got the mission. "There was a lot of emotion with this one. It was a hard couple of days."

The staff made it their mission to design something they felt would be worthy of those the medal is meant to honor.

"It was really hard for me," said Costella Alford, the illustrator who designed the medal's reverse side. "I was putting myself in the place of the victims. I didn't think anything I could do would put across what they went through. I knew two people [who were] affected [by the attacks]."

The other challenge the design team faced was the fact that the medal had to be designed for use in the future.

"It is not just for the [Sept. 11] incidents, but to be used in the future as well," said Sproston, who developed four suggested designs of his own. "Therefore we couldn't be too specific.

"I tried to keep the Trade Center and Pentagon out of the design because I knew the medal would be used for decades down the road," Sproston said. "It was hard to separate the functions of the medal from what had just happened."

The final medal was chosen from the combination of LeClerc and Alford's designs.

The medal is suspended from a ribbon of four red stripes, four white stripes and one big blue stripe.

The red stripes commemorate the valor and sacrifice and the fact that there are four is significant of the number of aircraft which were hijacked by the terrorists, LeClerc said. The blue stripe represents strength and loyalty and is significant of the attack on the Pentagon. The white stripes signify liberty.

"At first I intended to put more of the incident into the medal [design], but I changed my mind." LeClerc said.

LeClerc's design features an eagle bearing a shield, which she says is indicative of defense, and it is perched on a branch of laurel, which symbolizes excellence, honor and a job well done.

Another element of the medal's design is rays of light shining from behind the eagle.

"The light alludes to the Great Seal [of the United States]," LeClerc said. "The light represents hope and gives the eagle a look of more resolve."

"It also gives the eagle's head some more presence," Sproston said.

The medal's reverse side came from design submitted by Alford, who is also an Army Reserve staff sergeant with the 305th Psychological Operations unit in Upper Marlboro, Md., where she also works as an illustrator.

"I wanted the medal to be able to bear the individual's name," said Alford referring to the box she created to allow for the recipient's name to be engraved.

"Originally I designed the medal with the wording 'For Extraordinary Bravery,' but DoD went with the wording 'On Behalf of a Grateful Nation,'" said Alford, who's worked for the institute for 15 years.

Alford also added a wreath of laurel to the bottom of the medal to signify honor.

Much more than emotions and heraldry went into the design of the Defense of Freedom medal.

"When you do something like this it's got to be good," LeClerc said. "You're constantly questioning yourself, 'Is this good enough?'"

"I just thought about all of those who lost family members, and when the person gets this [medal] on behalf of the person whose name is on the back I want them to be proud," Alford said. "This is a high honor for me."

LeClerc said it was "the highest honor" to design the medal. "We have not done many medals over the years. This ranks way up there."

The institute submitted six designs for the Defense of Freedom medal to DoD for approval Sept. 19. Once the final design was selected, the Institute of Heraldry's Technical and Production Division went into action to facilitate the medal's production.

"Once we get the line drawing from Creative Heraldry, we go out on contract to have it developed," said Stan Haas, chief of the Technical and Production Division.

The contract for production starts with a purchase description that includes the weaving of the medal's ribbon and the production of the medal.

"We also provide the manufacturer with guidance on interpreting the two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional image," said Haas, who has been with the Institute for more than 13 years.

The die makers make the hub and dies for the manufacturing process," Haas said. Each side needs its own die.

The Defense of Freedom medal will have a matte 24-karat gold finish, which means that only the highlights of the medal will be shiny.

"This finish was the choice because it gives the decoration an enhanced appearance," Haas said.

"Initially, 400 of these medals will be procured through OSD [the Office of the Secretary of Defense]," Haas said.

The institute will monitor the production of the medal through every step of the process, said Gerry Caswell, an industrial specialist who has worked for the institute for 15 years and oversees medal production.

The ribbon for the medal is being manufactured by Balley Ribbon Mills of Balley, Pa., first and then sent to the medal manufacturer, GRACO Awards, Inc., of Tomball, Texas, to be put together into one piece.

"I get a picture [of the ribbon], take actual measurements, clarify the colors and check on the finish," said Pam Reece, a textiles industrial specialist who has worked for the institute for more than 14 years. "In this case I worked with Sarah on her concept."

"Normally we give manufacturers four months to complete the manufacturing process," Caswell said.

"In this case it took approximately two weeks," Haas said. "We got approval of the design on Sept. 21 and we hope to have hubs and dyes on Friday."

Eichorn said one factor that helped enable the quick turn around on this medal is the close proximity the institute has with the few manufacturers doing this kind of work. Another was their desire to do whatever they could to support the military on this project.

"We had the ribbon in house Sept. 26," Reece said. "When we contacted the manufacturer they told us they were holding a loom open for us, and they ran 24-hours a day to turn [out] the ribbon."

"The contractors were pretty dedicated and more than willing to do this," Haas said. "It's indicative that patriotism is very deep in the country."

"Most manufacturers drew the assumption the new medal was related to the attacks and gave us a price that was way under cost," said Caswell.

"It makes me feel good to complete this," Haas said. "It's an emotional piece especially the first ones going out to those killed in the Pentagon. An awful lot of thought and emotion went into the design, and that was touching."

"From where I sit, everybody [in the institute] has that same feeling," Eichorn said. "Virtually everybody touched this project in one way or another.

"What we do in the institute is more than a job people come to the institute and they fall in love with what they do," Eichorn said. "It's more than a job."

The first of the new medals may be presented as early as this month, according to Charles Abell, assistant secretary of defense for Force Management Policy.

"These assaults have brought the battlefield home to us," Rumsfeld said. "As a result, a large number of DoD civilians gave their lives in combat. Their sacrifice also requires recognition. The establishment of this decoration is a fitting honor and a tribute to the extraordinary dedication and service of the department's civilian workforce."

(Hall is editor of the Fort Belvoir Eagle.)