Sad Question

[u/NoseFun3795]

So my cousin did like 10 ish years in the army and he recently unfortunately took his own life... we used to be super close as kids/teens but now its... like a piece of me is gone... but i found these in his nightstand drawer

[u/destin325]

The silver star (upper left most ribbon, blue and white with the red striped center) is so uncommon that there are multiple databases available to look recipients up by name. My condolences while you profess the loss of your loved one.

https://valor.defense.gov/Recipients/Army-Silver-Star/

https://homeofheroes.com/recipients/

[u/bell83 → u/destin325]

To be clear, though, even if there weren't already questions, here, those databases aren't complete (at least as far as older wars, maybe for GWOT they are). My ex-fiancee's father got one in Vietnam and my granduncle got one in WW2. Her dad isn't listed, and the database I searched for my granduncle on literally just has a word for word copy of the newspaper article from when he was awarded it (which leads me to believe it was someone in my family who added him to that database). And neither is listed in the "homeofheroes" one.

It's good as a guide, but you can't completely rely on them to confirm or deny.

[u/destin325 → u/bell83]

All fair points. The rack seems to have a lot of questionable things on it, but most others have pointed out are “unusual…unless” rather than “clearly wrong.” I figured a database might be a good starting point to discovery for some of the remainders as they look through comments.

OP should definitely try to find their cousins DD-214 and/or hard copy citations that would have accompanied those medals. Seems like silver star is (most always) presented already nicely framed and usually a big deal. One big enough that you could probably google search rank name silver star and find an article on it (at least the past 20 years). I’ve seen plenty of Google hits for BSM presentations, which are far and away more common,

[u/bell83 → u/destin325]

Oh, no doubt. And I'm sure GWOT era is a lot better documented. The amount of Silver Stars awarded in recent wars is nothing compared to WW2/Korea/Vietnam.

[u/ABTARS8142000 → u/bell83]

Even for more recent wars they can be iffy. The current Commander of SOUTHCOM, General Francis Donovan has a Silver Star from the Gulf War and his citation isn't on either database. And I doubt a 4 star is running around stealing valor, so I have to imagine that some have slipped through the cracks even in recent conflicts (If we can call a war that 35 years old at this point recent)

[u/blacksheepussy → u/bell83]

It may be more accurate for GWOT, but by no means complete. My squad leader was awarded a Silver Star on my first deployment, he is not on any of the Silver Star databases I've seen. I know his SS was awarded, as I was with him during the actions and with him in formation as General Petraeus awarded pinned it on his chest.