{"id":50854,"date":"2020-01-23T16:27:01","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T16:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/23\/a-texas-state-guardsman-has-created-a-war-on-drugs-service-medal\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:35:26","slug":"a-texas-state-guardsman-has-created-a-war-on-drugs-service-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/01\/23\/a-texas-state-guardsman-has-created-a-war-on-drugs-service-medal\/","title":{"rendered":"A Texas State Guardsman has created a War on Drugs service medal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can get an award for practically everything in the military, but member of the Texas State Guard thought it odd that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=12&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj2w4PMgprnAhWkm-AKHZjqD-EQFjALegQIBBAB&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.navytimes.com%2Fnews%2Fyour-military%2F2019%2F09%2F26%2Fcoast-guard-intercepts-narco-sub-carrying-over-165m-in-cocaine%2F&amp;usg=AOvVaw15xds1_Md2zSJNOU6OLYMq\" target=\"_blank\">War on Drugs<\/a> hasn\u2019t been considered a military campaign \u2015 so he created his own medal, and he\u2019s trying to take it all the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thomas Marriott, an Austin-based entrepreneur and 2nd lieutenant in his state\u2019s part-time paramilitary organization, has <a href=\"https:\/\/petitions.whitehouse.gov\/petition\/executive-order-establish-war-drugs-service-medal-1\" target=_blank>petitioned the president<\/a> to issue an executive order establishing the <a href=\"https:\/\/warondrugsmedal.org\/\" target=_blank>War on Drugs Service Medal<\/a> for all federal and state military service members who have supported a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&#038;rct=j&#038;q=&#038;esrc=s&#038;source=web&#038;cd=11&#038;cad=rja&#038;uact=8&#038;ved=2ahUKEwj2w4PMgprnAhWkm-AKHZjqD-EQFjAKegQIAhAB&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.militarytimes.com%2Fnews%2Fyour-military%2F2019%2F07%2F18%2Flawmakers-want-to-boost-coast-guards-land-based-drone-program-to-interdict-more-drugs%2F&#038;usg=AOvVaw2MwuUi-6rxpDi26dp3T2VV\" target=_blank>counter-trafficking mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And before anyone starts ranting about a participation medal, he told Military Times in a Jan. 16 phone interview, he gets it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"5616\" height=\"3744\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/566853.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-89878\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/566853.jpg.jpg 5616w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/566853.jpg.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/566853.jpg.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/566853.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/566853.jpg.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/566853.jpg.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 5616px) 100vw, 5616px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. Marines with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, patrol through a poppy field on their way to Patrol Base (PB) Mohmon in the Lui Tal district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 17, 2012. The Marines joined with coalition forces at the PB to begin conducting operations in the area. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Ismael E. Ortega\/Released)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMilitary culture is definitely not interested in adding yet another medal to the whole fruit salad of medals,\u201d Marriott said. &#8220;And people say, \u2018That\u2019s your job, you shouldn\u2019t be rewarded for doing your job.&#8217; &#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But by his count, he said, the War on Drugs is one of America\u2019s longest \u2015 almost five decades since President Richard Nixon declared it in 1971, making it longer than the Cold War \u2015 as well as costly in life and limb, with thousands of casualties from missions around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m obviously not trying to upset anybody,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to honor that duty and sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The medal itself is a <a href=\"https:\/\/warondrugsmedal.org\/products\/purchase\" target=_blank>real thing you can buy<\/a> for $55 on Marriott\u2019s website, though it\u2019s not authorized for wear on a uniform and isn\u2019t endorsed by any official command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He began working on the medal in 2015, while doing some family research. His father deployed during Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama in 1989, a mission to arrest dictator Manuel Noriega on drug trafficking charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was surprised there wasn\u2019t a medal for that and hundreds of other counter-drug missions troops have carried out, from training local forces in South America to destroy opium fields in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To that end, Marriott considers over a dozen <a href=\"https:\/\/warondrugsmedal.org\/pages\/sacrifice\" target=_blank>named operations<\/a> in southern Afghanistan part of the War of Drugs, and their casualties part of the sacrifice in the name of that effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t have a clear answer and I think that\u2019s kind of just the nature of war itself,\u201d he said when asked why he considers Afghanistan a front of the War on Drugs, other than that the opium crop is a documented part of many of those missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The country also inspired the design of the medal, though Marriott acknowledges that the day-to-day military work and sheer man hours in the War on Drugs belongs to the Coast Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI went back and forth like, do I honor the duty part of it? Because the Coast Guard has probably at the most duty,\u201d he said. \u201cOr do I honor the sacrifice part of it?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He ultimately went with the sacrifice aspect, sketching a Marine patrolling a poppy field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So far he\u2019s sold about a thousand medals since the store went live in 2017, he said, and he credits pop culture moments like Narcos TV show and the hunt for El Chapo with shoring up interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an effort to go legit, he said, he created the White House petition and sent an email to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, though he has not heard from them beyond a confirmation that they received it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is precedent for an award like this, he found in his research. The Guatemalan government has awarded soldiers their Medal of the White Nun for helping to train their forces in counternarcotics, and several states award a counter-drug ribbon through the National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s just a very interesting gap,\u201d Marriott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As far as the naysayers, he said, he has a feeling that the official award would still have support, based on his observations of the Army\u2019s own uniform regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt doesn\u2019t require that soldiers actually wear the awards that they\u2019re given, but yet they do,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople want that recognition for what they\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There isn&#8217;t an award for serving in the War on Drugs, but this lieutenant wants to change 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