Challenge Coins: Rising to the Standard

For the uninitiated, a challenge coin might look like little more than a decorative medallion — but for those who have earned one, it represents something far more lasting. Challenge coins are custom-made tokens presented to military members, veterans, civilians, and supporters to recognize achievement, commemorate service, or mark membership in a unit or organization. They are, in the simplest terms, stories you carry in your pocket.

Two Norwich University alumni and current campus leaders who have spent careers in service — and in building the communities that define the Norwich experience — reflect on what these coins have meant to them, and what they can mean for the broader Norwich community.

LTC Brian Doyle, USA (Ret.), Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations, has a nuanced view of how challenge coins are used. "I've seen them used two ways: to award an individual for doing something well, or to present as a token of belonging to a group," says LTC Doyle. "I subscribe to the latter reason." During his time in command, LTC Doyle made a practice of presenting coins to every new soldier under his charge — not as a reward, but as a welcome. "I liked to present them to all my new soldiers as a token for belonging."

His first coin, he recalls, came from GEN Gordon Sullivan, USA, at an Association of the United States Army conference in Washington when Doyle was still a Norwich cadet. “I still have it on my desk,” he says. “It means a great deal.” The coins that followed over the course of a career tell a similar story. "The Army moves you a lot — friends come and go quickly. The coins are reminders of those times and people."

MAJ Neil Julian, USA (Ret.), Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations, echoes that sense of enduring connection. For MAJ Julian, each coin in his collection is inseparable from the moment and the people it represents. His first coin in service came from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment during Operation Iraqi Freedom, a deployment that took him through the early stabilization of Al Anbar Province in 2003. "Every time I look at that coin, I am reminded of the Troopers I served with, the mission we accomplished together, and the lessons in leadership, resilience, and teamwork that continue to remain relevant to me today."

Later coins would mark other defining moments — leading logistics operations as Brigade S4 with the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, and commanding a task force in Faizabad Province, Afghanistan, that resulted in the recovery of Afghan National Police officers held captive by the Taliban for more than twenty days. That coin, from the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, "serves as a reminder of the complexity of coalition operations, the importance of international partnerships, and the impact military service can have on the lives of others," says MAJ Julian.

Both alumni find in challenge coins a reflection of something central to the Norwich ethos. For LTC Doyle, "it is all about belonging — coins I received are linkages to people and units and events. Tokens of a career of service and meaning."

For MAJ Julian, a Norwich challenge coin carries that same weight. "It reflects the values learned on The Hill, the friendships forged through common experience, and the commitment to carry Norwich's ideals into the world."

A challenge coin is not simply something you receive. It is a story with meaning that you carry with you for the rest of your life.