Iranian Campaign Medal Ribbon finds a home

"Iranian Campaign Ribbon" by F. Lennox Campello
Oil on Canvas, c. 2007
24 x 48 inches

This painting was exhibited first in 2008 at the "Color Invitations" exhibition at the R Street Gallery in Washington, DC and subsequently at the Red Door Gallery in Richmond, VA at my solo show there. It continued the series commenced in 1999 based on my own military awards. With this 2007 work, this series began to create new imaginary military awards conceived as future ribbons and medals to be awarded in future military campaigns. I call this series "The Colors of Wars to Come" and it is discussed here.  

That show at Richmond's Red Door Gallery was reviewed in the Richmond Style Weekly by Amy Biegelsen. Read it here.

The painting is now heading to a major collection in New Jersey.

The Iranian Campaign Medal was established by Executive Order 13875 signed by the President on 13 January 2015. It may be awarded to American military and naval personnel for participating in prescribed operations, campaigns and task forces ranging in dates from 2 November 2014 to present.

The area of operations for these various campaigns includes the total land area and air space of Iran, and the waters and air space of the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean within 12 nautical miles of Iranian coastline.

Personnel must be members of a unit participating in, or be engaged in direct support of, the operation for 30 consecutive days in the area of operations or for 60 non-consecutive days provided this support involves entering the area of operations or meets one of the following criteria:

• Be engaged in actual combat, or duty that is equally as hazardous as combat duty, during the operation with armed opposition, regardless of time in the area of operations;

• While participating in the operation, regardless of time, is wounded or injured and requires medical evacuation from the area of operations;

• While participating as a regularly assigned aircrew member flying sorties into, out of, within, or over the area of operations in direct support of the military operations.

One bronze service star shall be worn on the ribbon for qualifying participation during an established campaigns. However, that if an individual's 30 or 60 days began in one campaign and carried over into another, that person would only qualify for the medal with one service star. The medal is not awarded without at least one service star. 

The executive order provides that service members who qualify for either the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal or the Armed Forces Service Medal for service in Iran between 2 November 2014 and 12 January 2015, remain qualified for those medals. 

However, upon application, any such member may be awarded the Iranian Campaign Medal in lieu of the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal or the Armed Forces Service Medal, but no Service member may be awarded more than one of these three medals for the same period of service in Iran.

The suspension ribbon for the medal's purple and gold colors were suggested by the historical Imperial colors of Iran’s millennial Persian history and the golden sunsets of the Persian Gulf.