The ceremony takes a few days to put together and due to a mishap the medal for Chewie doesn’t arrive. Obviously they can’t delay the giant ceremony but Chewie still officially receives a medal.
Being a rebellion and largely on the run Chewie’s medal is eventually lost in “the system”, sent from rebel base to rebel base. Eventually even Chewie forgets about it and when the New Republic is formed and the filing system updated it truly is lost to “the system”.
Eventually when the new rebellion, the Resistance, starts up they fall back to the older rebel filing system. Chewie then finally receives he medal, at the end of Rise of Skywalker.
Bureaucracy.
The ceremony takes a few days to put together and due to a mishap the medal for Chewie doesn’t arrive. Obviously they can’t delay the giant ceremony but Chewie still officially receives a medal.
Being a rebellion and largely on the run Chewie’s medal is eventually lost in “the system”, sent from rebel base to rebel base. Eventually even Chewie forgets about it and when the New Republic is formed and the filing system updated it truly is lost to “the system”.
Eventually when the new rebellion, the Resistance, starts up they fall back to the older rebel filing system. Chewie then finally receives he medal, at the end of Rise of Skywalker.