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Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge

US military badge

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ7079412 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge is a military badge issued to members of the United States Armed Forces who are permanently assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and its subordinate offices, and in addition, to some of the Defense Agencies and Department of Defense Field Activities.

History

The badge was first created in 1949 and was referred to as the "National Military Establishment Identification Badge." In 1950, the badge was renamed as "Department of Defense Identification Badge." On December 20, 1962 the badge was given its current name.

Award criteria

It is issued as a permanent decoration and is to be worn for the remainder of an individual's military career, provided that a service member served at least one year (two years for Reserve personnel not on active duty) in or in support of OSD. Personnel who are awarded the badge include all military personnel, when they are assigned on a permanent basis to any of the following organizational elements:

The immediate offices of the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense.

The offices of the Under Secretaries of Defense.

The offices of the Assistant Secretaries of Defense.

The Office of the General Counsel of the Department of Defense.

The Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense.

The offices of the Assistants to the Secretary of Defense or Deputy Secretary of Defense.

The Office of the Defense Advisor, U.S. Mission to NATO.

The offices of the Directors of Net Assessment

The Office of the Director of Administration and Management (DA&M)

The Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E)

Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO)

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)

Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA)

Notable recipients

Chappie James

Hal Moore

Colin Powell

Norman Schwarzkopf

Andria Slough

Dan Caine

John F. Kelly

James Mattis

William N. Jackomis, PhD, MS

In popular culture

In the 1969 film Easy Rider, the leather jacket worn by Peter Fonda's character Wyatt ("Captain America") has an OSD Identification Badge affixed to the left breast.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge” as uS military badge. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Office, Secretary and Defense.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1949, 1950, 1962, 1969—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Office, Secretary and Defense providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge”, the useful work is to connect “uS military badge” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7079412. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1950, 1962 and 1969.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge primary sources, Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge archive and Office research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.