Posted : Monday Nov 22, 2010
Award and decoration totals for soldiers who have served, or are serving, in Iraq and Afghanistan, topped 857,000 through fiscal 2010, according to the Army’s latest medal count for the war on terrorism.
The statistics, compiled by the military awards branch of Human Resources Command, show that after nearly nine years of combat, soldiers have earned 163,564 awards for participation in Operation Enduring Freedom, which includes Afghanistan.
The award total for Operation Iraqi Freedom, which began March 15, 2003, and ended Sept. 30, stands at 693,822.
The combined total of 857,390 equates to about 48 percent of the Army medal count for World War II, 30 percent of the total for the Vietnam War and seven times the number awarded for the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War.
