Silver Star
The Silver Star Medal is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest personal decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States.
History
The Silver Star Medal is the successor award to the "Citation Star" which was established by an Act of Congress on July 9, 1918, during World War I. On July 19, 1932, the Secretary of War approved the conversion of the "Citation Star" to the SSM with the original "Citation Star" incorporated into the center of the medal.Authorization for the Silver Star Medal was placed into law by an Act of Congress for the U.S. Navy on August 7, 1942, and an Act of Congress for the U.S. Army on December 15, 1942. The current statutory authorization for the medal is Title 10 of the United States Code, for the U.S. Army, for the U.S. Air Force, and for the U.S. Navy.
The U.S. Army and Air Force award the medal as the "Silver Star". The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard continue to award the medal as the "Silver Star Medal". Since 21 December 2016, the Department of Defense refers to the decoration as the Silver Star Medal.
Award criteria
The Silver Star Medal is awarded for gallantry, so long as the action does not justify the award of one of the next higher valor awards: the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Air Force Cross, or the Coast Guard Cross. The gallantry displayed must have taken place while in action against an enemy of the United States, while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force, or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.The Silver Star Medal is awarded for singular acts of valor or heroism over a brief period, such as one or two days of a battle.
Air Force pilots and combat systems officers and Navy/Marine Corps naval aviators and flight officers flying fighter aircraft, are often considered eligible to receive the Silver Star upon becoming an ace, which entails the pilot and, in multi-seat fighters, the weapons system officer or radar intercept officer, intentionally and successfully risking his life multiple times under combat conditions and emerging victorious. However, during the Vietnam War, the last conflict to produce U.S. fighter aces: an Air Force pilot and two navigators/weapon systems officers, a naval aviator and a naval flight officer/radar intercept officer who had achieved this distinction, were eventually awarded the Air Force Cross and Navy Cross, respectively, in addition to SSMs previously awarded for earlier aerial kills.
;Unit award equivalent
- Air Force – Gallant Unit Citation
- Army – Valorous Unit Award
- Coast Guard – Coast Guard Unit Commendation
- Navy-Marine Corps – Navy Unit Commendation
Appearance
;Ribbon devices
Second and subsequent awards of the Silver Star Medal are denoted by bronze or silver oak leaf clusters in the Army and Air Force and by gold or silver inch stars in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.
Recipients
The Department of Defense does not keep extensive records for the Silver Star Medal. Independent groups estimate that between 100,000 and 150,000 SSMs have been awarded since the decoration was established. Colonel David Hackworth who was awarded ten SSMs while serving in the Army during the Korean War and Vietnam War, is likely to be the person awarded the most SSMs. Donald H. Russell, a civilian Vought F4U Corsair technical support engineer attached to a Marine Corps fighter wing, received the SSM for his actions aboard after the carrier was attacked by a Japanese dive bomber in March 1945. In the fall of 1944, President Roosevelt’s close adviser Harry Hopkins, the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow W. Averell Harriman and a military attaché presented the SSM to Soviet Red Army artillery officer Alexei Voloshin, who was the first to cross the Dnieper with his battery and was one of four junior Red Army officers who received the award. Wyatt Waldron was a Marine with 3rd Battalion 4th Marines and received the SSM, the Purple Heart and two other medals of Valor during his three combat deployments in Iraq.Female recipients
Three Army nurses that served in World War I were cited in 1919 and 1920 with Citation Stars for gallantry in attending to the wounded while under artillery fire in July 1918. In 2007, it was discovered that they had never been awarded their Citation Stars. The three nurses were awarded the Silver Star Medal posthumously:- Jane Rignel – Mobile Hospital No. 2, 42nd Division, for gallantry in "giving aid to the wounded under heavy fire" in France on July 15, 1918
- Linnie Leckrone – Shock Team No. 134, Field Hospital No. 127, 32nd Division, for gallantry while "attending to the wounded during an artillery bombardment" in France on July 29, 1918
- Irene Robar – Shock Team No. 134, Field Hospital No. 127, 32nd Division, for gallantry while "attending to the wounded during an artillery bombardment" in France on July 29, 1918
The next known servicewomen to receive the Silver Star is Army National Guard Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester in 2005, for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq and Army Specialist Monica Lin Brown in March 2008, for extraordinary heroism as a combat medic in the War in Afghanistan.
Notable recipients
Notable recipients include:- John Adair
- Joseph H. Albers
- John R. Alison
- Darr H. Alkire
- Leslie "Bull" Allen
- Terry de la Mesa Allen, Sr.
- Samuel E. Anderson
- Bernard L. Austin
- William Brantley Aycock
- Peter Badcoe
- John Bahnsen
- Robert H. Barrow
- Olinto Barsanti
- César Basa
- Harry F. Bauer
- Charles Alvin Beckwith
- David Bellavia
- Rafael Celestino Benítez
- Albert Blithe
- Larry "Scrappy" Blumer
- Royal L. Bolling
- Richard Bong
- Bruce Godfrey Brackett
- Omar Bradley
- Maurice L. Britt
- Monica Lin Brown
- Hubert Buchanan
- Phil H. Bucklew
- Arleigh Burke
- Jess Cain
- Modesto Cartagena
- Johnny Checketts
- Llewellyn Chilson
- David Christian
- Nestor Chylak
- Wesley Clark
- Max Cleland
- Lynn Compton
- Garlin Murl Conner
- John Thomas Corley
- Louis Cukela
- William J. Cullerton
- Roy M. Davenport
- Juan César Cordero Dávila
- Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
- Ray Davis
- Oliver W. Dillard
- James H. Doolittle
- Hugh A. Drum
- Jesus S. Duran
- Charles Durning
- Graves B. Erskine
- Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
- Joseph A. Farinholt
- Geoffrey Cheney Ferris
- Bernard Fisher
- Wayne Fisk
- Martin H. Foery
- Ronald Fogleman
- Mayhew Foster
- Guy Gabaldon
- Francis Gambacorta
- James M. Gavin
- Hobart R. Gay
- Jerauld R. Gentry
- John J. Gilligan
- Luigi Giorgi
- Mathew L. Golsteyn
- John W. Goode
- David L. Grange
- Charles H. Green
- John Campbell Greenway
- William Guarnere
- Ed Guthman
- Horatio B. Hackett
- David Hackworth
- Hugh William Hadley
- Alexander Haig
- Robert Halperin
- Iceal Hambleton
- Edward Hardin
- Tom Harmon
- Raymond Harvey
- Carlos Hathcock
- Vern Haugland
- Sterling Hayden
- Leo D. Hermle
- Diego E. Hernández
- Leigh Ann Hester
- Clifford B. Hicks
- Thomas Taro Higa
- David Lee "Tex" Hill
- Tony Hillerman
- Lucius Roy Holbrook
- Gordon Pai'ea Chung-Hoon
- Joe R. Hooper
- Robert L. Howard
- Clifton James
- Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Phil Johnon
- Sam Johnson
- James L. Jones
- James Taggart Kerr
- John Kerry
- Jonny Kim
- Joseph Kittinger
- Charles C. Krulak
- Chris Kyle
- Henry Louis Larsen
- Ben Lear
- John C. H. Lee
- Kurt Chew-Een Lee
- Honoré Ligarde
- Homer Litzenberg
- Elliott Loughlin
- Douglas MacArthur
- Victor Maghakian
- Fred K. Mahaffey
- Peyton C. March
- Richard Marcinko
- George Marshall
- Richard Marshall
- Barry McCaffrey
- John McCain
- Herbert Raymond "H.R." McMaster
- Sid McMath
- Timothy Null
- John McNulty
- William A. McNulty
- William K. MacNulty
- Merrill A. McPeak
- Charles B. McVay III
- Ray Melikian
- Charles L. Melson
- Daniel J. Miller
- Michael A. Monsoor
- Cliff Montgomery
- Audie Murphy
- Michael P. Murphy
- Raymond Murray
- Bismarck Myrick
- Oliver North
- Henry Ringling North
- Levi Oakes
- Mike O'Callaghan
- Eric T. Olson
- Jorge Otero Barreto
- Mohamed Oufkir
- Moultrie Patten
- George S. Patton
- George Patton IV
- Keith Payne
- Endicott Peabody
- John J. Pershing
- Basil L. Plumley
- Pascal Poolaw
- Harvey Possinger
- Charles E. Potter
- Tommy Prince
- Francis Gary Powers
- Chesty Puller
- Agustín Ramos Calero
- William Wilson Quinn
- Edward F. Rector
- Stephen C. Reich
- Rick Rescorla
- Robert B. Rheault
- Karl W. Richter
- Matthew Ridgway
- Antonio Rodríguez Balinas
- Pedro Rodriguez
- Robert Rosenthal
- Barney Ross
- James N. Rowe
- Dick Rutan
- Alfredo M. Santos
- Paul Saunders
- Harold Schrier
- Leonard T. Schroeder Jr.
- Robert L. Scott
- Arthur D. Simons
- Rodger W. Simpson
- H. Norman Schwarzkopf
- Ben Schwartzwalder
- Sidney Shachnow
- Charles Bradford Smith
- Frederick W. Smith
- Oliver Prince Smith
- Ronald Speirs
- Brian Stann
- James Stockdale
- Sean Stokes
- George L. Street III
- Samuel D. Sturgis Jr.
- Richard K. Sutherland
- Thomas Tigue
- Richard Tilghman
- Pat Tillman
- Michel Thomas
- William F. Train II
- Matt Urban
- James Van Fleet
- Paul K. Van Riper
- Humbert Roque Versace
- Nicolas Walsh
- Donald Walters
- John T. Walton
- Rawleigh Warner, Jr.
- Billy Waugh
- Jim Webb
- Haskell Wexler
- Kevin Wheatley
- Charles Willeford
- James E. Williams
- Jocko Willink
- Jerauld Wright
- Tahsin Yazıcı
- Chuck Yeager
- Elton Younger
- Douglas A. Zembiec