How can I, as a civilian, earn a medal? (international edition!)

Factual Questions
1

So, I’m curious: what can I, as a civilian, do to earn a medal or order? I’m interested in examples from anywhere in the world, the easier the better. So if Suriname bestows a medal upon anyone who can provide video of them tap-dancing with a capybara, I’d like to know about it.

I’m mostly familiar with Europe, where civilian medals are typically just for long public service, especially for diplomats and honorary consuls, or awarded to foreign diplomats. So, at least where I’m from, the only way to earn a medal outside the military is to work for the government for a few decades, or get recommended for a decoration by an honorary consul for helping him/her out. Then there’s medals for sports, of course, where the mechanism is straightforward.

Any faster/simpler possibilities? I’m particularly interested in countries, but organisations (like the Knights of Malta), breakaway states (like Abkhazia), and only-sort-of-states (like Sealand or the Hutt River Province) are valid too.

Thanks!

2

Be born and live in Malta around 1942?

Perform “acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger.” and get the George Cross?

Most Commonwealth nations still give out bravery and gallantary awards to civilians. New Zealand has four for example. Here are the citations for some recent recipients. Save a life in a particularly brave way and you’ve got a shot at one.

3

In the US, one of the highest honors possible is the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s a non-military award, and you don’t even have to work for the government. You just make major contributions to the nation, which can be in the form of arts, science, literature, technology, business, pretty much anything. Lots of actors, musicians, comedians, business people have won it, for instance. If some has-been actress can win this medal, then surely you can too.

4

If you start training right now, you may be able to get a medal in the 2016 Olympics.

5

Here’s a few Canadian ones.

6

There’s quite a few races that you can run that you get a medal for completing – for example, the Marine Corps Marathon here in DC is open to the public and you can get a medal for it. Not from the government, but a medal is a medal, right?

Other than that, you seem to be missing the point that medals aren’t really intended to be easily awarded. As Will Rogers said, “We can’t all be heroes, because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.”

However, there are a handful of honorary awards that are not medals that have somewhat lower thresholds. Look on Wikipedia for Kentucky colonels or Nebraska admirals, for example. It would help in those cases if you actually did things to benefit the states of Kentucky or Nebraska, of course.

7

Here in the U.K., if you perform an outstanding act of bravery, you can be awarded the George Cross or the Queen’s Gallantry Medal… It’s not widely appreciated but civilians are also eligible for the Victoria Cross, but for that you have to perform an outstanding act of bravery in the face of the enemy.

8

MBEs, OBEs, CBEs, Knighthoods and Dames are all medals. Would these count? In which case you would just have to be a citizen of the UK and excel in whatever your chosen field is. It would help if that’s something that serves the UK in some beneficial way, perhaps in charity or science. Being famous seems to help as does working in the civil service.

9

You can earn the Congressional Space Medal of Honor as a civilian, for “any astronaut who in the performance of his duties has distinguished himself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and mankind.”

Over half have been posthumous. :frowning:

10

I used to get those chocolate gold medallions all the time from my parents for getting As on my report card.

Here you go. $3.99 on Amazon.

11

You could probably pull a Cartman and participate in the Special Olympics.

12

Most draculas wear a medal.

13

Thank you everyone for the information! This is exactly what I’m looking for. Please keep it coming, anything at all. I’d love to hear about more obscure awards and obscure awarders, if anyone here knows about them.

Nope, not missing the point at all, though I can see how it might appear so :slight_smile: I was thinking that for the military, one can earn a medal “just” for participating in a conflict, even without seeing action or even being combat-trained. The Soviet Union, as I understand it, also awarded a large number of civilian medals - for industry, scientific contributions, having large numbers of children, and so on; it was a simple way to (try to) keep morale up. The counterpoint is, for example, the Scandinavian countries today - where the King/Queen can theoretically bestow a medal or order upon anyone, but in practise they are reserved for diplomats or other civil servants based on a strict system of numbers of years of service, and for foreign diplomats, heads of state, and people who help out diplomatic missions. So a Swedish scientist can win a Nobel prize, but AFAIK is highly unlikely to be awarded a medal by the government for their service.

As you yourself note, there are other more attainable medals - like for the Marine Corps Marathon (thanks for the info!). I’d also suspect that non-recognised states and marginalised orders (e.g. orders of chivalry), and tiny states like Tonga or Guyana that might want to draw international attention, might be more ready to award decorations, even just for PR. For example, I watched a documentary once (“Holidays in Places that Don’t Exist”, IIRC) where leaders of a breakaway republic (South Ossetia? Going from years-old memory) were trying to bribe the journalist to support their cause at home, and it seems a small step from offering a journalist a free car, to granting them a handshake from El Jefe and a fancy medal (which is cheaper, too).

Definitely counts. Thanks!

Rigamarole, good job thinking outside the box :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m sorry, what do you mean? There can be only one!

14

And at least in the US, we have the “Good Conduct Medal”, and the criteria is that you are an enlisted person who has fulfilled three consecutive years without formal disciplinary procedures being sustained against you. You don’t have to be saintly, or be a shining example, just don’t get caught doing anything naughty and you’ll apparently get it.

One thing to consider - Aren’t university degrees considered to be honors? Or are they completely separate due to medieval custom?

15

As kids the usual sarcastic question was, “You want a medal or a chest to pin it on?”

Gotta have one before the other.

16

For Germany: Bundesverdienstkreuz - because it’s given for

they are often given to people who ran a sports club or gardening club voluntary for 20 years.

If you are moderatly fit, you can do the test for the German Sportabzeichen. You need to show swimming, jumping, and running in a certain timeframe, but it’s not too difficult to train for it. (It can also be worth money - several health insurances which have started payback incentives program for their customers to stay fit reward either membership in a sports club or testing and passing for the Sportabzeichen with 20 or 30 Euros per year.

There are several swimming badges: the easy one; the rescue one (that’s required for teachers who want to take children swimming); and the endurance one (for people who got nothing better to do and collect medals) - though I now see it’s inofficial (it does have a nice death head, though!)

There are also local ones if you distinguish yourself culturally, intellectually or by doing something important to help the people - e.g Munich is bright.

17

The one I would love to get is the Antarctic Service Medal. Although a military medal it is available to civilians (see requirement b5). For Americans, you would need to go through the Nationl Science Foundation.

18

Those sound more like basic qualifications than honors (though, arguably, the line between a basic occupational or academic qualification and a real “honor” medal is vague and ambiguous.) If a badge is required before you can take children swimming rather than for extraordinary accomplishments in the field of teaching children to swim, then I’m seeing it more as a basic occupational qualification more analogous with, say, a Qualified Emergency Medical Technician certificate than a Lifesaving Medal. After all, you don’t need a Gold Medal in Gymnastics to teach P.E.

19

Yes, they are more low-level than the Life Saving Medal you get awarded when you act upon the chance to actually save a life. But not everybody gets the chance to save a life.

And the OP sounds to me as if he wants a very broad scope, like some people who actually do collect as many badges as possible.

Another one the OP can get by just walking enough are the medals of the IVV (international people’s sport organisation). For historic reasons (and maybe lack of interest?) they are heavily centered in the german-speaking countries. Every weekend, volunteers organize a walking event in some village. You pay a fee for the booklet and a small participation fee, walk your 10 or 20 miles, get a stamp for completion. Once the booklet is full, you turn it in to the medal officer and get a small metal pin, a sew-on badge and you can buy the booklet for the next level.
Old guys often have jackets filled with the sew-on badges, or hats full with scores of pins. Apparently to some people it’s very important to show their achievements.

You can see the designs of the different levels here.

20

Besides the Special Olympics (which would require cheating for an able-bodied adult), there are also many sports below Olympic level (National), which have age classes making competition thinner as you advance. So a 30year old running a marathon will have to be quite good; a 65 year old may only compete with half a dozen others.