Question for Marines

[Alpo 6,641]

You get a medal. Then you get that same medal again.

 

In the Army you put an oak leaf cluster on the medal. According to wiki, oakleaf clusters are only used by the Army and the Air Force (which, as we all know, used to be part of the army).

 

So while I'm sure they still use a little gold device on their medal to signify a second or more award of it, what is this little device called?

Edited January 26 by Alpo

[Chief Rick 614]

The medals that I am familiar with, we use stars.  Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medals (Navy or Marine Corps).

 

One bronze star for each subsequent medal you receive. 

 

A silver star is used in lieu of 5 bronze stars.

[Alpo 6,641]

Thanks Rick. I thought I had read somewhere that they were stars, but I could not recall where I read it to check. And doing a search on oak leaf clusters USMC does not get what I was hoping for - THE MARINES DON'T USE OAK LEAF CLUSTERS YOU MORON, THEY USE whatever. It just kept telling me all about oak leaf clusters and the Army.

[Chief Rick 614]

2 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Thanks Rick. I thought I had read somewhere that they were stars, but I could not recall where I read it to check. And doing a search on oak leaf clusters USMC does not get what I was hoping for - THE MARINES DON'T USE OAK LEAF CLUSTERS YOU MORON, THEY USE whatever. It just kept telling me all about oak leaf clusters and the Army.

Wiki - 5/16 inch star

[Utah Bob #35998 15,861]

The army uses stars for campaigns and OLC for subsequent wards.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935 7,196]

1 hour ago, Chief Rick said:

The medals that I am familiar with, we use stars.  Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medals (Navy or Marine Corps).

 

One bronze star for each subsequent medal you receive. 

 

A silver star is used in lieu of 5 bronze stars.

Yep!

[Noz 1,911]

Some awards get "knots" for the second etc.

[Singin' Sue 71615 681]

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L 789]

I seem to recall Dad's uniform, and on some of his ribbons (not the medals), there were little arrowheads, that I believe he told me signified beachhead landings, or specific battles or some such thing. He was in an Army amphibious division, fighting in Leyte, and later Okinawa. 

[Major Crimes 2,303]

Not that you asked but in Australia we use bars.

So if you see VC and Bar it means it was awarded twice. This has only ever happened three times in the history of the VC.

The same for our Campaign medals if you get the Active Service Medal (or Service Medal) for say Iraq then go on to Afghanistan then you get a bar for each theatre with the name of that Theatre on it.

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437 1,720]

As an aside, the Army also has a silver oak leaf cluster to denote 5 such awards (it would actually be six, because the ribbon counts as one and oak leaf clusters count as additional awards -- hence, a Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters denotes THREE times the medal has been awarded).  A silver OLC is five oak leaf clusters, so a silver OLC on a ribbon = six awards.  A silver plus a bronze OLC = seven, etc.

Edited January 27 by Cyrus Cassidy #45437

[Alpo 6,641]

Same with the naval service and their star.

 

And when there is no room on the ribbon for another star or cluster, you wear a second ribbon.