Vietnam Service Stars?

Mountain

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Dad was a USMC pilot and flew over 200 combat missions in Vietnam. Shot up but never shot down. He was a nice guy and very humble- never talked about any awards or accomplishments other than marksmanship stuff before he went overseas. He's no longer here for me to ask, so thought I'd check here for some info.

On his ribbons and medals I see two silver and one bronze service star. My understanding is that one silver = 5 bronze, so that equals 11 service stars? What actions in Vietnam would warrant a service star? Just being there for a given operation? Combat activity for a specific operation? Time in service? Just curious what would be the type of actions. IIRC, a local newpaper article mentions him coming back with 13 medals, though I think he said he just did his job and received the usual recognition for that.

Interesting that I only see one bronze service star for my Grandfather. I think he was 'in theater' as long or longer than my Dad. He was a Ssgt. in the Red Arrow Brigade (32nd Infantry) for Philippines campaign and later in Japan for the surrender and occupation. 32nd logged more combat days than any other Army division in WWII.
 
Service stars are campaigns. I have one from Iraq and 2 from the Stan. Both year tours. Maybe the Air Force was running different campaigns?

USMC pilot, but yes- must have been different. He was not there for 11 years, assuming the 2 silver + a bronze = eleven bronze.

Some can be for time/accumulated time in a particular theater or part of a campaign.

Thanks for sharing.

Scroll down:

http://www.medalsofamerica.com/Item--i-R062

Thanks!

One of these days I'm going to have a couple stacks of slides digitized. The color is still pretty impressive.
 
Stars mean different things on different ribbons in different contexts and different branches of service. Marines and sailors often got them in lieu of subsequent awards, but again it depends on the medal.

Seriously, just take a pic of your dad's ribbons. We'll decode them all for you in short order.
 
As for your Grandfather he's what I found doing a quick search.

"On 1 February 1944, the 32nd Regiment assaulted Kwajalein. During five days of fighting, the 32nd, along with the 184th Infantry Regiment, eliminated all the enemy personnel on the island, with the exception of a few exhausted Japanese who surrendered.

The regiment returned to Hawaii on 14 February where it went through additional intensified jungle training for an expected invasion of the Yap Island. Arriving at Eniwetok Atoll on 25 September 1944, the regiment's orders were changed and the 32nd joined General Douglas MacArthur's forces, spearheading the first landingson Leyte Island, Philippines. Fighting in swamps, tropical jungles, and over rugged mountains, the 7th Infantry Division battled over 37 miles (60 kilometers) in 60 days of the bitterest fighting in the Pacific.[citation needed]

The regiment's last campaign of World War II started 1 April 1945 with the landings at Okinawa. During this battle, the 32nd won the nickname "Spearhead" because of its continuous attacks against the enemy. After only three days of rest after the fighting on Okinawa, the 32nd embarked for Korea to receive the surrender of all the Japanese troops south of the 38th parallel. During its campaigns through the Pacific, the 32nd Infantry Regiment traveled 16,910 miles."
 
On his ribbons and medals I see two silver and one bronze service star. My understanding is that one silver = 5 bronze, so that equals 11 service stars? What actions in Vietnam would warrant a service star? Just being there for a given operation? Combat activity for a specific operation? Time in service? Just curious what would be the type of actions. IIRC, a local newpaper article mentions him coming back with 13 medals, though I think he said he just did his job and received the usual recognition for that.

If they are stars on the Vietnam Service Medal, they are for the individual campaigns. It is not a time related thing.

List of campaigns can be found here: Vietnam Service Medal - Wikipedia

and yes, wiki is not the definitive source. I'm retired and I'm not digging up regs. :)
 
Kim is correct....So @Mountain, 2 silver and one bronze would = 5 years, six months of Vietnam service, not necessarily consecutive. Your dad had the coveted golden horseshoe up is arse.

Thanks for digging up this old thread- I had almost forgotten. No argument about the golden horshoe- plenty of friends and family who were not so lucky and came back with life changing damage or didn't come back at all.

Pretty sure this would be individual campaigns or similar- definitely wasn't 5 years.

As for your Grandfather he's what I found doing a quick search.

"On 1 February 1944, the 32nd Regiment assaulted Kwajalein. During five days of fighting, the 32nd, along with the 184th Infantry Regiment, eliminated all the enemy personnel on the island, with the exception of a few exhausted Japanese who surrendered.

The regiment returned to Hawaii on 14 February where it went through additional intensified jungle training for an expected invasion of the Yap Island. Arriving at Eniwetok Atoll on 25 September 1944, the regiment's orders were changed and the 32nd joined General Douglas MacArthur's forces, spearheading the first landingson Leyte Island, Philippines. Fighting in swamps, tropical jungles, and over rugged mountains, the 7th Infantry Division battled over 37 miles (60 kilometers) in 60 days of the bitterest fighting in the Pacific.[citation needed]

The regiment's last campaign of World War II started 1 April 1945 with the landings at Okinawa. During this battle, the 32nd won the nickname "Spearhead" because of its continuous attacks against the enemy. After only three days of rest after the fighting on Okinawa, the 32nd embarked for Korea to receive the surrender of all the Japanese troops south of the 38th parallel. During its campaigns through the Pacific, the 32nd Infantry Regiment traveled 16,910 miles."

Gramps was a Ssgt. in charge of a platoon and issued a BAR but swapped it for an M1 Garand because he had no interest in lugging the BAR up and down the mountains. Pretty sure he was there from Leyte onward, though likely he was deployed before Leyte. I remember him saying that it was rare to capture the Japanese alive during his time in the Philippines. He recalled finding some in caves after they had killed themselves rather than surrender. He also saw some jump off a cliff rather than surrender, though I don't know exactly where that was.

If they are stars on the Vietnam Service Medal, they are for the individual campaigns. It is not a time related thing.

List of campaigns can be found here: Vietnam Service Medal - Wikipedia

and yes, wiki is not the definitive source. I'm retired and I'm not digging up regs. :)

Thanks. Dad's been gone since the 90's so he's not around to ask, though some of his old USMC pilot buddies are still around. I'll have to look for his service record & medals. Wish I could find some slides that he photographed while there. Some really nice pics but haven't seen them since we moved.
 
Gramps was a Ssgt. in charge of a platoon and issued a BAR but swapped it for an M1 Garand because he had no interest in lugging the BAR up and down the mountains. Pretty sure he was there from Leyte onward, though likely he was deployed before Leyte. I remember him saying that it was rare to capture the Japanese alive during his time in the Philippines. He recalled finding some in caves after they had killed themselves rather than surrender. He also saw some jump off a cliff rather than surrender, though I don't know exactly where that was.

Thanks. Dad's been gone since the 90's so he's not around to ask, though some of his old USMC pilot buddies are still around. I'll have to look for his service record & medals. Wish I could find some slides that he photographed while there. Some really nice pics but haven't seen them since we moved.
 
1st paragraph: My somewhat informed guess was that was during the invasion of Okinawa...

If you know the unit he served in in country im sure they have history/pics of your dad....Sorry your granddad
 
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Thanks. Dad's been gone since the 90's so he's not around to ask, though some of his old USMC pilot buddies are still around. I'll have to look for his service record & medals. Wish I could find some slides that he photographed while there. Some really nice pics but haven't seen them since we moved.

I'm telling you, post pics of his ribbon rack and we'll have this figured out in in a jiffy. Some of us enjoy figuring this stuff out.
 
Damn, I just did the math and my 2 stars on my Vietnam Service Medals corresponded with the three campaigns @AFAR/PFAR has listed.... learning something new...well not exactly new

Actually because as much as the military says it likes consistency and uniform solutions, it is far from consistent of the wearing of appurtenances depending on the medal.

Your 3 campaigns equals 3 service stars. For the VSM and similiar campaign medal(not the Vietnam Campaign Medal as that is a foreign award), the actual ribbon does not numerically count as an award.
Don't mind me, I nerd out on this stuff, but have also been in a position to where I have to help folks since about 2008.--not anymore though-yay!

*Take any achievement medal with a single appurtenance(use a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster for example-USMC uses stars if I remember correctly): That is two awards-ribbon + appurtenance.
*National Defense Service Medal with a Bronze Service Star on it equals two qualifying periods. The ribbon + the BSS.
*Campaign medal(or VSM) with a BSS equals one campaign. The ribbon does not factor into the numbers.

Confusing. Yep. Often revised a few years after the conflict kicks off-most definitely.

Take recent history for example-
When The War Against Terror(TWAT) kicked off, the GWOTEM alone represented service in either Iraq or Afghanistan. 30 April 2005, the ICM and the ACM came out. No campaign stars for any of the three medals at the time, and you can only wear one medal for a qualifying event(a deployment/AKA tour for you older folks). I was in Iraq during this transition and chose the ICM. Those who had earlier deployments could choose to convert their GWOTEM to the ICM or ACM or just keep the GWOTEM.

After a few years the military decided to implement individual campaigns. People griped that they didn't want to add stars, but it isn't like there isn't precedence(every war since WWI).

I ended up with 2 stars on an ICM. 09-10 Afghan deployment ended up with an ACM with 2 stars. 11-12 deployment add another star. So 3 deployments-5 stars on two different campaign medals.

then a couple years passed and the war in Iraq is over-not the Bush mission accomplished, but the Obama, we're pulling out. Some dudes spent 6 months in Iraq, then moved down to Kuwait for 6 months and another mission. Same deployment, two completely different missions, authorized ICM with appropriate stars for Iraq and GWOTEM for Kuwait.

A couple more years and now the GWOTEM has campaign stars. So people that kept the GWOTEM for say OIF I now have to hop in the way back machine and add a star for that. The on again off again surge from Kuwait into Iraq confused folks even more.

All this is why I rarely knock people that are wearing incorrect campaign stars--you really have to pay attention to every release that comes out so as to stay on top of it. I would typically sit down with my senior NCOs and help map out what should be correct according to their deployments while showing them my methodology so they could help their folks know what was right.

Do you have his DD-214 ? You can get it online...

Also this OP. I don't know if the older 214s would state this, but the current 214s state what periods of service you spent imminent danger pay areas.
 
OP, once you find a 214, check this link: Awards Builder Marlow White is generally pretty good. Obviously 214s are only as good as the verification when your dad separated. Even in the days of computers, mine needed a bunch of correction when I did my final out in August.
 
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