Posts misrepresent Joint Chiefs Chairman Milley’s military record

CLAIM: Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark A. Milley has never served in combat or won a war.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Milley, the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S., has extensive combat experience, including tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is authorized to wear the Combat Infantryman Badge, meaning he has actively participated in ground combat.

THE FACTS: A photo of Milley is spreading widely on social media, along with claims questioning his military credentials. The image, which does not identify Milley by name, shows the senior officer in his full dress uniform on the floor of the House of Representatives prior to the 2022 State of the Union.

“Can someone explain to me how a man who never served in combat and never won a war has THIS many medals on his uniform?” reads a block of text above the photo, which was taken by Evelyn Hockstein, a Reuters photojournalist.

The image and its accompanying text were shared widely on Instagram and Twitter, receiving tens of thousands of likes and shares.

But Milley has extensive combat experience. For example, he was deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, which began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Milley’s other deployments include assignments in Egypt, Panama, Haiti and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Milley became a one-star general, also known as a brigadier general, in 2008. Since then, two of the most significant conflicts in which the U.S. has been engaged, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, concluded with U.S. withdrawal. However, during his more than 40-year military career, Milley has also been involved with operations that have been seen as U.S. successes. For example, he was part of Operation Just Cause, which restored the democratically-elected government of Panama to power, and Operation Uphold Democracy, which brought back democratic rule in Haiti.

Among Milley’s myriad awards and insignia is the Combat Infantryman Badge with one star, meaning he has won the award twice. It can be seen on Milley’s jacket in the misleading posts. There are three basic eligibility requirements for receiving this badge, which is awarded to soldiers ranked as a colonel or below. According to the Code of Federal Regulations, a soldier “must be an infantryman satisfactorily performing infantry duties,” “must be assigned to an infantry unit during such time as the unit is engaged in active ground combat” and “must actively participate in such ground combat.”

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at the AP.