Category Archives: Troops

So few Americans serve in the military these days (roughly ten percent, if that much) that the usual journalistic ignorance of military terms and conventions (because very few journalists are among the ten percent) has spread to the general populace. For instance, the misunderstanding  about the Bronze Star Medal (BSM).

A lot of people seem to think it’s a valor award. Probably they get that from the news media crowing about some soldier they’re puffing (they either puff or criticize, they can’t seem to draw any line down the middle) as having been awarded a BSM. At least they now frequently refrain from saying the soldier “won” it, as if war was a “reality” show on the rube.

The BSM with a V is a valor medal, though still at the bottom of the scale of valor medals. My own from 1969 has no V, so it can’t be said to have been awarded for my heroism, of which there was none . I only answered the call of duty. The BSM is generally awarded (there are exceptions to everything) for having been assigned to a combat unit, though not necessarily for participating in combat. It’s a fairly mundane award.

“It’s the showing-up-for-work-on-time medal,” as an old friend of mine who also fought in Vietnam likes to say, though the “work” is combat. My friend has a Silver Star medal, which is a valor medal by itself and therefore requires no V.  And it’s a much bigger deal than a BSM, even one with a V, though it’s still third on the scale, below the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor, the premier valor medal.