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Silver Star

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use American English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military award

File:Mullen Awards Silver Star to Capt. Ambrosia.JPG
Army Captain Gregory Ambrosia receiving the Silver Star from Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military 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.

HistoryEdit

The Silver Star Medal (SSM)<ref name=DoD1348.33v3/> is the successor award to the Citation Star which was established by an Act of Congress on 9 July 1918, during World War I. On 19 July 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 7 August 1942, and an Act of Congress for the U.S. Army on 15 December 1942. The current statutory authorization for the medal is Title 10 of the United States Code, Template:UnitedStatesCode for the U.S. Army, Template:UnitedStatesCode for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, and Template:UnitedStatesCode for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force.

The U.S. Army awards the medal as the "Silver Star". The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard award the medal as the "Silver Star Medal".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Since 21 December 2016, the Department of Defense (DoD) refers to the decoration as the "Silver Star Medal".<ref name=DoD1348.33v3/>

Award criteriaEdit

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.<ref name="Section 578.12">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=DoD1348.33v3>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref name=DoD1348.33v3/>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.Template:Citation needed

Unit award equivalent

AppearanceEdit

The Silver Star Medal is a gold five-pointed star, Template:Convert in circumscribing diameter with a laurel wreath encircling rays from the center and a Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert wide and consists of the following stripes: Template:Convert Old Glory red (center stripe); proceeding outward in pairs Template:Convert white; Template:Convert ultramarine blue; Template:Convert white; and Template:Convert ultramarine blue.<ref name=tioh>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 star|Template:Frac inch stars]] in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.<ref name=DoD1348.33v3/><ref name=COMDTINSTM1650.25D>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

RecipientsEdit

File:Cheney Presents Silver Star to Spc. Monica Brown.jpg
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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was awarded seven SSMs for his service in France in World War I from February to November 1918 as a colonel and then brigadier general. 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 Template:USS after the carrier was attacked by a Japanese dive bomber in March 1945.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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<ref>Template:Citation</ref>Template:Page needed and was one of four junior Red Army officers who received the award.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Female recipientsEdit

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 (Army nurses served without rank until 1920) were awarded the Silver Star Medal posthumously:<ref name="auto">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Jane Rignel – Mobile Hospital No. 2, 42nd Division, for gallantry in "giving aid to the wounded under heavy fire" in France on 15 July 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 29 July 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 29 July 1918

An unknown number of servicewomen received the award in World War II. Four Army nurses serving in Italy during the war—First Lieutenant Mary Roberts, Second Lieutenant Elaine Roe, Second Lieutenant Rita Virginia Rourke, and Second Lieutenant Ellen Ainsworth (posthumous)—became the first women recipients of the Silver Star, all cited for their bravery in evacuating the 33rd Field Hospital at Anzio on 10 February 1944.<ref name=foxnews /> Later that same year, Corporal Maggie Leones, a Filipino who later immigrated to the United States, received the medal for clandestine activities on Luzon;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Template:As of, she is the only female Asian to receive a Silver Star.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The next known servicewomen to receive the Silver Star were Army National Guard Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester in 2005, for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq<ref name=foxnews /> and Army Specialist Monica Lin Brown in March 2008, for extraordinary heroism as a combat medic in the War in Afghanistan.<ref name=foxnews>Template:Cite news</ref>

On November 12, 2024, Capt Lacie “Sonic” Hester, 494th Fighter Squadron, became the first woman airman awarded the Silver Star for her role in the shootdown of more than 80 Iranian drones launched at Israeli cities.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Notable recipientsEdit

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See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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