Silver Helmet

His­tory
The AMVETS Sil­ver Hel­met Award‚ a unique sil­ver replica of the World War II GI hel­met‚ has over the years acquired a well-deserved rep­u­ta­tion as the most pres­ti­gious of all the awards given by vet­er­ans orga­ni­za­tions and is now known as the “Vet­er­ans Oscar.” The Sil­ver Hel­met was first pre­sented at the AMVETS 10th Anniver­sary Din­ner to World War II hero and diplo­mat Gen­eral of the Army George C. Mar­shall‚ in recog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tions as a sol­dier‚ states­man and American.

The Sil­ver Hel­met Awards cer­e­mony rec­og­nizes excel­lence and out­stand­ing accom­plish­ment in the fields of Amer­i­can­ism, defense, reha­bil­i­ta­tion, con­gres­sional and civil ser­vice. Nom­i­na­tions for the Sil­ver Hel­met Awards orig­i­nate with indi­vid­ual AMVETS mem­bers and AMVETS posts‚ and are endorsed by the respec­tive state AMVETS hon­ors and awards com­mit­tees prior to the AMVETS national con­ven­tion in August.

The AMVETS National Hon­ors and Awards Com­mit­tee‚ com­posed of all past national com­man­ders and the last five “AMVET-of-the-Year” awardees‚ reviews the nom­i­na­tions and makes rec­om­men­da­tions to the con­ven­tion to deter­mine the recip­i­ents.
The Sil­ver Hel­met Awards Ban­quet is held annu­ally in con­junc­tion with the AMVETS Spring National Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee meet­ing. In addi­tion to AMVETS mem­bers, the audi­ence includes cab­i­net mem­bers‚ mem­bers of Con­gress and mil­i­tary offi­cials who come to pay trib­ute to the recip­i­ents of the award and AMVETS.