physics

Silver Star

Silver Star is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Silver Star rather than just read about it. In short: 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.

Key takeaways

Silver Star belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Silver Star to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Silver Star from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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) 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. Chief of Staff of the Army Douglas MacArthur played a key role in creating this medal, similar to how the Purple Heart was created, via modifying the Citation Star without needing Congress because Congress during this time refused to pass laws authorizing new medals. 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, 10 U.S.C. § 7276 for the U.S. Army, 10 U.S.C. § 8294 for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, and 10 U.S.C. § 9276 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". Since 21 December 2016, the Department of War (DoW) refers to the decoration as the "Silver Star Medal".

Award criteria 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. 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. 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. 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, 1+1⁄2 inches (38 mm) in circumscribing diameter with a laurel wreath encircling rays from the center and a 3⁄16 inch (4.8 mm) 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 1+3⁄8 inches (35 mm) wide and consists of the following stripes: 7⁄32 inch (5.6 mm) Old Glory red (center stripe); proceeding outward in pairs 7⁄32 inch (5.6 mm) white; 7⁄32 inch (5.6 mm) ultramarine blue; 3⁄64 inch (1.2 mm) white; and 3⁄32 inch (2.4 mm) 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 5⁄16 inch stars in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

Recipients

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 USS Franklin 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 (of no rank, since Army nurses served without rank until 1920) 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, the Silver Star was created and they were authorized to exchange their Citation Stars for Silver Stars. In 2007, it was discovered that they had never been awarded their Citation Stars. The three nurses were awarded the Silver Star posthumously in 2007:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Silver Star

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Silver Star claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Silver Star before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Silver Star ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Silver Star

In research: Silver Star appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Silver Star in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Silver Star is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1932 establishments in the United States, Awards and decorations of the United States Air Force, Awards and decorations of the United States Army, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Silver Star outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Silver Star in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Silver Star means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Silver Star out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Silver Star in simple terms?

Why does Silver Star matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Silver Star?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Silver Star.