The military recognizes that military medals are often a cherished part of family history and makes replacement medals, decorations, and awards available to veterans or their next of kin if the veteran is no longer living or able to make the request on his or her own behalf.  Replacement medals, decorations and awards should be requested on SF 180, Request Pertaining to Military Records. This form can be downloaded from http://www.va.gov/vaforms. 

Each request should be filled out neatly, and should include the veteran‘s branch of service, social security number, dates of service, and it should be signed by the veteran or the next of kin if the veteran is incapacitated or deceased. Where to forward it to is indicated by an address code on the back of the SF 180. In general, requests made by the veteran are fulfilled at no cost. This includes requests made by family members who have the signed authorization of the veteran.  There may be an associated fee for requests made by next of kin, especially if the request involves archival records (records are considered archival records 62 years after the veteran‘s date of separation from military service).

[Source:  RAO Seal Beach CA | John Ryan | Jan, 01, 2015]