For example, can a soldier be awarded more than one Bronze Star with a "V device"?

An elderly Vietnam infantry veteran tells me that although he was no John Wayne, he served two tours in Vietnam and has two Bronze Stars with "V" devices.

Why not?

He still would only wear one "V" on his medal/ribbon, with stars or clusters for subsequent awards.

Kinda like the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with bronze "M" for Mobilization. The Bronze, Silver or Gold Hour Glass signifies 10-, 20-, or 30-years of Reserve Service, the "M" signifies being mobilized, and a bronze numeral signifies the number of times mobilized.

No multiple "M"s.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JerryG,

quote:

Originally posted by Torreon:
For example, can a soldier be awarded more than one Bronze Star with a "V device"?

An elderly Vietnam infantry veteran tells me that although he was no John Wayne, he served two tours in Vietnam and has two Bronze Stars with "V" devices.

Yes. My dad was awarded two Bronze Stars for Valor. So he's got the "V" and a bronze oak leaf cluster on the ribbon/suspension.

Matt
SPC, AV
US Army
OCS Selectee
Class 303-10

quote:

Originally posted by Torreon:
For example, can a soldier be awarded more than one Bronze Star with a "V device"?

Yes.

Google Joe Hooper.

quote:

Originally posted by PepeLep:

quote:

Originally posted by Torreon:
For example, can a soldier be awarded more than one Bronze Star with a "V device"?

Yes.

Google Joe Hooper.

I googled Joe Hooper. That answers my question.

Joe Ronnie Hooper was an incredibly brave and courageous soldier -- six Bronze Stars with Valor Devices; the Medal of Honor; two Silver Stars; and eight Purple Hearts.

Thanks to all of you for the information.

quote:

Originally posted by Torreon:
I googled Joe Hooper. That answers my question.

Joe Ronnie Hooper was an incredibly brave and courageous soldier -- six Bronze Stars with Valor Devices; the Medal of Honor; two Silver Stars; and eight Purple Hearts.

Thanks to all of you for the information.

Yes thanks for the information, I went to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society = XXX...http://www.cmohs.org/...XXX

And looked up Joe Ronnie Hooper’s MofH Citation, it is on hell of a read. Sad he passed away and into history with so little notice.

quote:

Joe Ronnie Hooper was an incredibly brave and courageous soldier -- six Bronze Stars with Valor Devices; the Medal of Honor; two Silver Stars; and eight Purple Hearts.

That just made me think, I know there have been a very few who have received a second MoH. Can you imagine meeting someone wearing the Blue Max with a cluster?

quote:

Originally posted by Shardik:
Can you imagine meeting someone wearing the Blue Max with a cluster?

That would freak me out. Mostly because it was last awarded over 90 years ago and all the recipients are dead.

quote:

Originally posted by Torreon:
Joe Ronnie Hooper -- six Bronze Stars with Valor Devices; the Medal of Honor; two Silver Stars; and eight Purple Hearts.

I'm surprised he never was awarded the DSC.

quote:

Originally posted by redleg13f:

quote:

Originally posted by Shardik:
Can you imagine meeting someone wearing the Blue Max with a cluster?

That would freak me out. Mostly because it was last awarded over 90 years ago and all the recipients are dead.

Don't know if you were joking or not but "BlueMax" is also the nickname for the CMoH.

I know. It was a poor halloween / I see dead people joke. Don't worry, I won't quit my day job.

A person with a second award of the MOH would wear a rosette not a cluster. It's a moot point now because nobody can be awarded a second MOH anymore. Congress changed the law a few years ago.

The rosette that comes with the MoH is for wear on civilian attire (i.e. a lapel pin). The law revision states that no second medal will be awarded, meaning the physical medal to hang around the neck. An individual can still be cited more than once for acts above and beyond, but will have to wear an oak leaf cluster, not a second medal. Not that that's ever going to be an issue at the rate things are going now a days.

The law states that a person cannot be awarded the MOH twice, not just that a second medal won't be given. A second medal is never given for any U.S. awards or decorations regardless of how many a person earns. A person can be recommended for a MOH as many times as someone thinks it is deserved but it can only be approved once. The rosette that comes ith the medal now is the lapel pin, but prior to the law being changed, a smaller rosette was used for second awards on the ribbon and on the medal. There haven't been any multiple MOH awardees since WWI.

Sir, to which law do you refer? The United States Code supports what I stated.

"for each succeeding act that would otherwise justify the award of such a medal or cross, the President may award a suitable bar or other device to be worn as he directs"

"Other device": per AR600-8-22 para 6-3 device for decorations is an oak leaf cluster. An exception is listed for the Air Medal, but not the Medal of Honor.

The no second medal, by law, only applies to the three listed below. I've seen subsequent awards of LOM's be pinned on and presented with cases and all, in fact I don't recall ever seen someone get an AAM or above and just get an oak leaf cluster handed to them. For Good Conducts, etc. yes, but decorations no. I can not find any reference to a prohibition of presenting subsequent medals in AR600-8-22.


References:

Title 10, United States Code
§ 3744. Medal of honor; distinguished-service cross; distinguished-service medal: limitations on award
(a) No more than one medal of honor, distinguished-service cross, or distinguished-service medal may be awarded to a person. However, for each succeeding act that would otherwise justify the award of such a medal or cross, the President may award a suitable bar or other device to be worn as he directs.
(b) Except as provided in subsection (d), no medal of honor, distinguished-service cross, distinguished-service medal, or device in place thereof, may be awarded to a person unless—
(1) the award is made within three years after the date of the act justifying the award;
(2) a statement setting forth the distinguished service and recommending official recognition of it was made within two years after the distinguished service; and
(3) it appears from records of the Department of the Army that the person is entitled to the award.
(c) No medal of honor, distinguished-service cross, distinguished-service medal, or device in place thereof, may be awarded or presented to a person whose service after he distinguished himself has not been honorable.
(d) If the Secretary of the Army determines that—
(1) a statement setting forth the distinguished service and recommending official recognition of it was made and supported by sufficient evidence within two years after the distinguished service; and
(2) no award was made, because the statement was lost or through inadvertence the recommendation was not acted on; a medal of honor, distinguished-service cross, distinguished-service medal, or device in place thereof, as the case may be, may be awarded to the person concerned within two years after the date of that determination.

AR600-8-22
6-3 A bronze or silver twig of four oak leaves with three acorns on the stem, 13/32-inch long for the suspension ribbon, and 5/16-inch long for the service ribbon bar and the unit award emblem is issued to denote award of second and succeeding awards of decorations (other than the Air Medal)...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: redleg13f,

SDF_Member, you will need more than your words to back up your claims....

You derive your words from laws and regs.

Please post them.

Do not take this as a personal attack, but we take information in here regarding awards very seriously, hence the reason redleg posted regulations.

The MoH being a one time award is a common comment. I won't go so far as to say that it is absolutely not so, but I will say the regulations that I am aware of do not support that assertion.

The medal of Honor Society has the following listed in it's MoH timeline for 9 July 1918;

"The act of July 9th was further clarified in September, then again in February 1919, to stipulate that no person could receive more than ONE Medal of Honor. Previously there had been 19 DOUBLE AWARDS of the Medal, but hereafter, while there were provisions for second and consecutive awards of lesser medals to be made and noted with appropriate ribbon devices, no more than ONE Medal of Honor could be awarded."

The wording here can be, IMHO, misleading. You can certainly infer from from it that since it says "while there were provisions for second and consecutive awards of lesser medals to be made and noted with appropriate ribbon devices, no more than ONE Medal of Honor could be awarded" it differentiates the MoH from other medals that may recieve appurtenances as meaning the MoH cannot and only one MoH can be awarded to an individual even if repeat acts of valor rise to that level.
The USC, however, is quite clear that the MoH, DSC, and DSM medals themselves will be awarded only once but subsequent acts (no mention of MoH being an exception) can be recognized with "a suitable bar or other device to be worn as he directs". There is no question that the DSC and DSM have been awarded multiple times and OLCs have been used to do exactly that.

I have the utmost respect for the Medal of Honor Society and have no doubt that it is a credable source, but this particular paragraph is not clear cut and when choosing between it and the USC, the USC is quite literaly 'the law'. If there is any other section of the USC or CFR, or judicial review of the statute that applies and says something different, by all means point it out. I've looked and can't find any contradictory official regulations.

I also can't find any source that says the rosette was indicative of subsequent awards at any time. It was used for civillian attire like it is now since its inception in 1896.

Although the law states only one MOH may be awarded, I wonder if it was simply poorly written.

It's possible the intent, instead of meaning a person cannot be awarded a second MOH for a totally different action, meant to stop multiple MOH being given for the same action.

During WWI, there were FIVE Marines awarded both the Navy MOH AND the Army MOH. Both awards were for the same actions.

One, GYST Charles F. Hoffman, was awarded two MOH under two different names, for his actions at Hill 1142 on June 6, 1918. He was awarded the Navy MOH.
He later changed his name to Ernest A. Jansen and was awarded the Army MOH for the very same action.
The two citations actually read a little different on his awards.

The other 4 Marines were given both MOH because they were assigned to the Second Marine Division and it was attached to an Army unit.

One WWI Marine was awarded only the Army MOH.

There have been several awards for actions in different conflicts. For example, Smedley Butler was awarded the MOH for actions in Mexico in 1914 and Haiti in 1915. Others were awarded for actions in the Civil War and then the Indian Wars. Or, two different actions during the same war.

I googled "Medal of Honor, multiple awards" and found the above information.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: gumbydammit,

Sounds logical that the purpose of the legislation was to prevent multiple medals for the same action. It's probably not a coincidence that all 19 doubles were awarded prior to 1918 - when the MoH was the only option.
Post 1918 even those who recieved MoH's for different actions may have recieved something different.

For example John Lafferty (Navy); First award combat action on the Roanoke River 25 May 1864. Second action peacetime, the citation reads "Serving on board the U.S.S. Alaska at Callao Bay, Peru, 14 September 1881. Following the rupture of the stop-valve chamber on that vessel, Laverty hauled the fires from under the boiler."

Today that would rate the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, but the MoH was the only option at the time.