{"id":82084,"date":"2026-05-21T15:25:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T15:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2026\/05\/21\/marines-now-eligible-for-mexican-border-defense-medal\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:56:21","slug":"marines-now-eligible-for-mexican-border-defense-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2026\/05\/21\/marines-now-eligible-for-mexican-border-defense-medal\/","title":{"rendered":"Marines now eligible for Mexican Border Defense Medal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marines who participate in missions along the U.S.-Mexico <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2025\/12\/23\/marines-deployed-to-arizonas-southern-border-to-support-security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">border<\/a> are now eligible for a newly created award established by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2026\/05\/20\/marines-lower-time-in-service-requirement-for-sergeant-promotions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2026\/05\/20\/marines-lower-time-in-service-requirement-for-sergeant-promotions\/\">Corps<\/a> can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/03\/27\/a-war-zone-minus-the-war-one-year-later-has-the-military-really-secured-the-us-mexico-border\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">award<\/a> the Mexican Border Defense Medal to Marines \u201cdeployed in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection,\u201d the service announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The medal applies to service members who spent at least 30 days \u2014 consecutively or cumulatively \u2014 on applicable missions beginning Jan. 20, 2025, in areas near the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2026\/05\/12\/army-plans-summer-deployments-to-southern-border\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2026\/05\/12\/army-plans-summer-deployments-to-southern-border\/\">southern border<\/a>, including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The medal\u2019s criteria also includes assignments to nearby waters north of the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The award replaces the Armed Forces Service Medal for operations after Aug. 13, 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/global\/asia-pacific\/2026\/05\/15\/us-marines-practice-seizing-remote-islands-in-philippine-exercise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/global\/asia-pacific\/2026\/05\/15\/us-marines-practice-seizing-remote-islands-in-philippine-exercise\/\">Marines<\/a> who were previously awarded that medal for missions earlier in the year can choose to exchange it, according to the Thursday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marines.mil\/News\/Messages\/Messages-Display\/Article\/4497122\/establishment-of-the-mexican-border-defense-medal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.marines.mil\/News\/Messages\/Messages-Display\/Article\/4497122\/establishment-of-the-mexican-border-defense-medal\/\">MarAdmin<\/a>. They cannot, however, keep both for the same deployment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Only one medal may be awarded to each Marine, regardless of how many deployments they have completed. The change applies to the entire service, including active duty and reserve personnel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to previous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/03\/27\/a-war-zone-minus-the-war-one-year-later-has-the-military-really-secured-the-us-mexico-border\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">reporting<\/a> by the War Horse, by late March, roughly 9,000 soldiers and Marines had been deployed as part of Joint Task Force Southern Border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marines who participate in missions along the U.S.-Mexico border are now eligible for a newly issued medal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":70974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3387],"class_list":["post-82084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"X2B2TDYVCBGJRKFF6ZATTAA44U","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2026\/05\/21\/marines-now-eligible-for-mexican-border-defense-medal\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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U.S.-Mexico border are now eligible for a newly issued medal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2026\/05\/21\/marines-now-eligible-for-mexican-border-defense-medal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-21T15:25:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T16:56:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eve Sampson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eve Sampson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            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