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United States Marine Corps Portal

The Marine Corps Brevet Medal was a military decoration of the United States Marine Corps which was created in 1921 per Marine Corps Order Number 26. The decoration was a one time issuance and retroactively recognized living Marine Corps officers who had received a brevet rank between the years 1861 to 1915.

Also known as the “Brevet Medal”, the decoration was considered to be the equivalent of the Navy Cross, although in precedence it ranked just behind the Medal of Honor, since those receiving the award had received field commissions as Marine Corps officers, under combat conditions, and had performed feats of distinction and gallant service. The award was only issued to twenty Marine Corps active, retired, and discharged personnel.

This decoration was justified on the grounds that until 1915 Marine Corps officers were not eligible for the Medal of Honor. The medal was designed by Sergeant Joseph Alfred Burnett. The ribbon, in USMC scarlet, closely mirrored the blue-and-white starred motif of the Medal of Honor. No attached devices were ever authorized.

In 1940, the Marine Corps declared the Brevet Medal obsolete since all but one of the original recipients were at that time deceased. The lone survivor, Major General John T. Myers, USMC, had been brevetted for valor at the siege of the U.S. embassy at Beijing, China, in 1900. He died in 1959 (Charlton Heston portrayed him under a fictitious name in the movie 55 Days at Peking). The medal was never again issued, since the concept of brevet commissions was phased out of the United States military to be replaced by temporary and field commissions which were awarded much more frequently than brevet ranks.