Silver Star

The Silver Star Medal (SSM)[5] is the successor award to the "Citation Star" (​³⁄₁₆ silver 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, 10 U.S.C. § 3746 for the U.S. Army, 10 U.S.C. § 8746 for the U.S. Air Force, and 10 U.S.C. § 6244 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 (DoD) refers to the decoration as the Silver Star Medal.[5]

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.[7] 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.[5]

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.[5]

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 (i.e., having five or more confirmed aerial kills), 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.[8] However, during the Vietnam War, the last conflict to produce U.S. fighter aces: an Air Force pilot and two navigators/weapon systems officers (who were later retrained as Air Force pilots), 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

The Silver Star Medal is a gold five-pointed star, 1 ¹⁄₂ inches (38 mm) in circumscribing diameter with a laurel wreath encircling rays from the center and a ³⁄₁₆ inch (4.8 mm) diameter silver star superimposed in the center. The pendant is suspended from a rectangular shaped metal loop with rounded corners. The reverse has the inscription FOR GALLANTRY IN ACTION. The ribbon is 1 ³⁄₈ inches (35 mm) wide and consists of the following stripes: ⁷⁄₃₂ inch (5.6 mm) Old Glory red (center stripe); proceeding outward in pairs ⁷⁄₃₂ inch (5.6 mm) white; ⁷⁄₃₂ inch (5.6 mm) ultramarine blue; ³⁄₆₄ inch (1.2 mm) white; and ³⁄₃₂ inch (2.4 mm) ultramarine blue.[9]

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 ​⁵⁄₁₆ inch stars in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.[5][10][11][5]

Army Specialist Monica Lin Brown receives the Silver Star from then-Vice President Dick Cheney, 2008.

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.[12] 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.[13] 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 USS Franklin after the carrier was attacked by a Japanese dive bomber in March 1945.[14] 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[15] and was one of four junior Red Army officers who received the award.[16] 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.

• List of Australian Silver Star recipients

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Silver Star.

• Silver Star database at MilitaryTimes.com (Archive.org, not searchable)
• Military Times Hall of Valor (Searchable)
• Awards and Decorations Air Force Personnel Center