HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 30

48th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2008

INTRODUCED BY

Ben Lujan

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE NEW MEXICO CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO SUPPORT THE CREATION OF A COLD WAR SERVICE MEDAL FOR MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES WHO SERVED HONORABLY DURING THE COLD WAR, BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 2, 1945 AND ENDING DECEMBER 26, 1991.

     WHEREAS, it is generally agreed that the cold war took place during the period between September 2, 1945 and December 26, 1991; and

     WHEREAS, during this period of time, three hundred twenty-five Americans died as a result of hostile action, including more than two hundred airmen killed by communist air defenses, and more than forty American intelligence aircraft were shot down, killing sixty-four cryptologists and forty crew members; and

     WHEREAS, countless other Americans had their lives disrupted through military service in support of the cold war; and

     WHEREAS, the cold war was punctuated by such crises as the "Berlin airlift", the "Cuban missile crisis" and the building of the Berlin wall, each of which brought the world to the brink of disaster; and

     WHEREAS, the tide turned on November 9, 1989, when people officially were able to come and go as they wished from east to west Berlin, and they began to tear the wall down; and

     WHEREAS, the Soviet Union finally collapsed on Christmas day 1991, ending the cold war for all time; and

     WHEREAS, in 2002 the United States congress passed legislation to approve a cold war service medal; and

     WHEREAS, because the legislation did not require the United States department of defense to issue the medal, the department has issued only a cold war recognition certificate for both military and civilian service; and 

     WHEREAS, the cold war medal was designed by Nadine Russell, the chief of creative heraldry at the United States army's institute of heraldry; and

     WHEREAS, the medal currently exists as a civilian medal that may be privately purchased but is not distributed by the United States government; and

     WHEREAS, Senators Hillary Clinton and Susan M. Collins and Representative Robert E. Andrews reintroduced legislation in April 2007 in the United States senate and the house of representatives, respectively, to establish officially the "cold war service medal"; and

     WHEREAS, the proposed legislation would authorize the secretary of defense to issue a service medal, to be known as the "cold war service medal" to those who served honorably in the United States armed forces during the cold war;   

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE

STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the members of New Mexico's congressional delegation be requested to support legislation introduced by Senators Clinton and Collins and Representative Andrews to establish a military service medal to honor cold war veterans; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to each member of the New Mexico congressional delegation.

- 3 -