Army Superior Unit Citation

The Superior Unit Award is a decoration of the United States Army which is awarded in peacetime to any unit of the Army which displays outstanding meritorious performance of a difficult and challenging mission carried out under extraordinary circumstances.

The Army Superior Unit Award was created in 1985.

The award is composed of a green and red ribbon, enclosed within a gold frame.

Background: As part of the Army Cohesion and Stability Study (ARCOST) of 1980, a proposal to adopt the Army Superior Unit Award was forwarded to Major Army Commands (MACOM) for comment on 18 March 1981. This recommendation was based on the fact that present Army unit awards were for combat service only.

While all MACOM and most of the Army Staff supported the proposal, the leadership elected not to approve the new award. In 1984, the Vice Chief of Staff, Army, directed that a Peacetime Unit Award be developed and submitted for approval. In April 1985, the Secretary of the Army (SECARMY) approved the Army Superior Unit Award for meritorious unit performance of a uniquely difficult and challenging mission under extraordinary circumstances that involved the national interest. As a result of the strict criteria and lack of approving awards, the criteria was changed by SECARMY in July 1986. This change deleted the words "unique" and "national interest".

Only two units were awarded the ASUA prior to the revision. The first ASUA was awarded to the 164th Military Police Company, 59th Ordnance Brigade, Miesau, West Germany, in May of 1985 for their anti-terrorism work during NATO nuclear operations. The second went to the 3d Battalion, 502d Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. Nearly 200 of the 248 soldiers that were killed in a plane crash in Gander, Newfoundland, were from the battalion and were on their way home in December 1985 from duty with the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai Desert. Source: United States Army (2009)