Silver Star - WikiHQ

thumb|[[United States Army|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.

History

The Silver Star Medal (SSM) Since 21 December 2016, the Department of War (DoW) refers to the decoration as the "Silver Star Medal". 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. 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

Appearance

The Silver Star Medal is a gold five-pointed star, in circumscribing diameter with a laurel wreath encircling rays from the center and a 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 wide and consists of the following stripes: Old Glory red (center stripe); proceeding outward in pairs white; ultramarine blue; white; and ultramarine blue.

;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

thumb|[[United States Army|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. 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. 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 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.

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 1932, they were authorized to exchange them for Silver Stars. 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 in 2007:

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. , she was the only Asian woman to receive a Silver Star.

The next known servicewomen to receive the Silver Star were Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester in 2005, for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq, Hester was the first woman in the Army to receive it for valor in combat.

On November 12, 2024, Capt. Lacie Hester was awarded the Silver Star for her role in the shootdown of 70 drones and three ballistic missiles launched at Israel, becoming the first woman in the Air Force, and the 10th woman in the U.S. military, to receive the Silver Star.