To unlock an award weapon for a specific medal you must first gain 4 medals in that category to achieve Veteran status for that medal. Then when you successfully obtain the medal you will gain your award weapon. You must switch to it to use it.

Veteran status allows you to gain an award weapon and also gives you a 30 second grace period in which if you die, you will respawn with the award weapon. If you die after this 30 second grace period, you have to earn the medal/weapon again.

Elite Status gives you the advantage of lowering the requirement for that particular medal by 25% e.g. Elite status in Frenzy will let you gain the Frenzy award with only 9 kills instead of 12, therefore making it easier to gain.

Legendary Status allows you to permanently unlock the Award for that medal. You still start with the default weapon and must switch to the Award Weapon after entering combat.

Heroes cannot obtain medals, except in the case of the Mos Eisley Assault level, where you can earn Endurance, Guardian and War Hero.

These are all gained in Single Player mode. Can only be used on XBL if the server allows it.