Delaware Senator honored for support of National Guard

(D) Senator Ted Kaufman was presented with the Charles Dick Medal of Merit Friday during a ceremony at the Guard base in New Castle.

As his short term in Washington winds down, Senator Ted Kaufman (D.- Delaware) gets an honor from the National Guard Association of the United States.  Kaufman was presented with the Charles Dick Medal of Merit Friday during a ceremony at the Guard base in New Castle.

Kaufman, who was appointed to fill the unexpired portion of Joe Biden’s Senate term when Biden was elected Vice President, is not seeking re-election.

The Medal of Merit award was established in 1988 in memory of U.S. Senator Charles Dick who was a major in the Ohio National Guard.  The Dicks Acts of 1903 and 1908, named after him, established the foundation of today’s National Guard.

Major General Frank Vavala, adjutant general of the Delaware National Guard, is also Chairman of the Board for the National Guard Association of the United States.  Vavala says Kaufman was honored because “his support of the National Guard will have a profound and lasting effect for generations of Guardsmen – and Americans – to come.”

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Kaufman is the first Delaware lawmaker to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee and made several fact-finding trips to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

Former Governor Ruth Ann Minner received the honor in 2006.  Senator and former Governor Tom Carper, Representative Mike Castle and Joe Biden have also been presented with the Charles Dick Medal of Merit.

Several dozen men and women in uniform joined the salute to Kaufman, along with Senator Tom Carper, Attorney General Beau Biden and New Castle County Executive Chris Coons.