The State of Maryland Meritorious Service Medal may be awarded to any active or former member of the Maryland National Guard, any member of the active or retired military service who, while serving in any capacity and any branch of said service, shall have distinguished themselves in performance of meritorious service while holding a position of great responsibility to the Maryland National Guard and the State of Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

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The medal is gold in color and featues a nine-pinted starburst

Starburst (symbol)

A starburst is a symbol consisting of a star surrounded by rays emanating from it. In Unicode, the starburst character is U+273A....

. The medal is about inches in diameter and in the center features the shield, coronet

Coronet

A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. Unlike a crown, a coronet never has arches.The word stems from the Old French coronete, a diminutive of coronne , itself from the Latin corona .Traditionally, such headgear is – as indicated by the German equivalent...

, supporters

Supporters

In heraldry, supporters are figures usually placed on either side of the shield and depicted holding it up. These figures may be real or imaginary animals, human figures, and in rare cases plants or inanimate objects...

, and motto

Motto

A motto is a phrase meant to formally summarize the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used. The local language is usual in the mottoes of governments...

 scroll

Scrollwork

Scrollwork is an element of ornamentation and graphic design using a spiral. The name comes from by the supposed resemblance to the edge-on view of a rolled parchment scroll. "Scrollwork" is today mostly used in popular language for two-dimensional decorative flourishes and arabesques of all...

 from the seal of Maryland

Seal of Maryland

The Great Seal of the State of Maryland is the official government emblem of the State of Maryland in the United States. Its official service is to authenticate acts by the Maryland General Assembly, but it is also used for display purposes at most state buildings...

. The medal is inscribed "Meritorious Service--Maryland National Guard." The ribbon consists of vertical stripes: blue, white, blue, white, and blue.