Colonel Gottfried Salchner was awarded the “Legion of Merit (officer degree)” by U.S. Lieutenant General Keith W. Dayton, Director of the George C. Marshall Center.
This is one of the highest military awards for non-Americans that the US President can approve at the request of the US Congress. Colonel Salchner is the second officer from a foreign army to receive such an award since the Marshall Center was founded 25 years ago.
Salchner received the award in recognition of his special services as seminar leader at the Forum for Security and Defense Policy, as co-initiator of the cyber security program and for his work as a guest lecturer in the USA, Southeast Europe and Central Asia. More than 15,000 military and civilian leaders from 155 countries have taken part in conferences, courses and seminars since the opening of the German-American security and defense policy study center at university level based in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The native Tyrolean from Schwaz can look back on 14 years of experience abroad and was Deputy Defense and Military Attaché for the USA and Canada before joining the Marshall Center.
