In God We Trust
This section of the Korean War Educator lists those who received the Silver Star for Gallantry in Action in the Korean War. It is not a definitive list of all the heroic Americans who deserved and received this distinguished award in Korea. This list was compiled by searching the internet for names and citations and relying on printed resources and submissions to the KWE. It is a predominantly Army listing, but KWE is trying to locate the names of the Silver Star recipients from other branches of service. If any of our readers have the citations to go along with the names on the list below, or a recipient we haven't listed, please contact us so we can add it.
To view non-American Silver Star recipients, visit Silver Star (Foreign).
To view post-war recipients, visit DMZ Silver Star.
To understand the importance of KWE's lists, please read this message to the KWE from Paul B. Brown, Modern Military Records, Textual Archives Services Division, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland:
"Although among our holdings can be found 'award case files' for soldiers of the U.S. Eighth Army who were recommended for various medals, we do not have a comprehensive list of citations for personnel who received the Silver Star medal during the Korean War."
Silver Star recipients from the 65th Infantry Regiment are listed on the KWE courtesy of Danny and Mildred Nieves, whose "Puerto Rico's 65th Infantry Regiment" website is located at valerosos.com. Danny wrote to say:
"I have 255 Silver Star Recipients for my site. Originally, I had only the 125 that are listed in Max W. Dolcator's history of the Third Division for the 65th Infantry Regiment. The actual title of Dolcator's book is "3d Infantry Division in Korea", Tokyo: Toppan Printing Company, 1953. The book has a listing of the Silver Star recipients for the 65th Infantry Regiment and its sister regiments, the 7th and 15th. The listing for the 65th in Dolcator's book is incomplete since it only lists 125 Silver Stars.
Dolcator listed the names but did not include the citations. While researching the 65th Infantry Regiment at the National Archives, I came across the citations for the Silver Stars and Bronze Stars that I have on my site. The focus of my research was the 65th Infantry Regiment, but I did see the citations for its sister regiments too. The names that do not have links to citations on the Silver Star pages of my site are part of Dolcator's original list, and I have not made copies of those citations yet. My wife and I made two trips to the Archives in Maryland and made over 1000 photocopies. On my last trip my wife was exhausted from the research. She and my son gave the order to retreat. I left without making copies for a six-month period of the Korean War.
Currently I am working on the Bronze Star list and the roster for the 65th. When time permits, I will go back to the archives and make copies for the citations that I am missing for the Silver Star page. As you can probably imagine, this has been a lot of work. You are welcomed to the Silver Star citations that are on my site and I am glad that you are giving my wife and me credit for the work we did."
A list of Army Rangers who received the Silver Star in Korea was found on pages 247 and 248 of the book Rangers in Korea by Robert W. Black (Ballantine Books, 1989). A list of Silver Star recipients from the 5th Marines was given to the KWE. Other Marine Silver Star recipients were from a list compiled by Jane Blakeney, author of Heroes of the Marine Corps: 1861-1955. Others who have made this page possible include researcher Merry Helm, who has forwarded hundreds of recipient names and citations to the KWE; Doug Sterner, who manages the Home of Heroes Military Hall of Valor on the internet; and numerous individuals.
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