As for as who is awarded it - yes you must have been part of the unit during the time that the unit was considered "outstanding". As long as you were part of the unit during that time - you would eventually get the award, even if your assignment changed, and the award wasnt actually given until after you were reasigned to a new duty station. If I remember right, there were a few people who skated into it - they were assigned to the unit a month or so prio to the award, and didnt really contribute, yet were still awarded.

First I've heard of the court martial. It sounds quite unlikely. The man was honorably discharged.

That it was listed by Kerry’s website is curious in that it shows that his campaign is either similarly unaware, or sought to hoodwink those unaware.

Er, no, Kerry's website simply lists it as a "Silver Star".

It is only the PDF of the actual Navy record that adds "with Combat V".

"AIR FORCE INSTRUCTION 36-2803; Chapter 4; Paragraph 4.2

"'Individual Entitlement. All assigned or attached people who served with a unit during a period for which a unit award was awarded are authorized the appropriate ribbon if they directly contributed to the mission and accomplishments of the unit.'

"Merely being in the unit during the period covered by the award is not enough in the Air Force. According to the regulations, one must have contributed to the mission and accomplishments of the unit in order to qualify, which means an order is published listing all members of the unit qualified to wear the award.

"Bush's name appears on no such order."

Didn't it ever occur to any of you that Kerry may not have paid any particular attention to his form 214? That maybe he just stuck it in the drawer without noticing the "V" designation? Or that the people at his campaign just posted copies of whatever he gave them on his website without knowing the ins and outs of awards?

Yeah, yeah, he's supposed to correct any errors in his records. Well, people are supposed to do lots of things that they somehow never get around to doing. Kerry obviously never imagined his military service would be questioned at any point. If he had, he'd have taken some steps to deal with the Swift Vet mess before it damaged him so much. So the odd-on bet is that he either didn't know or didn't take seriously the bogus "V".

And here, I agree with him. There's lots of serious questions to ask about Kerry's Viet Nam service generally, and that Silver Star in particular -- e.g., why the three seperate citations? Let's concentrate on them, and leave the probable clerical error alone.

One of my commenters directed me to a London Telegraph story which quotes an unidentified Navy Department official as saying, "There's a feeling that it's time to deal with this thoroughly, once and for all." Although anyone who's looked at my blog can confirm that I'm no fan of Sen. Kerry and that I've been highly interested in, and generally supportive of, the SwiftVets' claims, I'm not ready to get excited yet about a British reporter quoting an unidentified Navy Department source about unidentified parties' "feelings." But I'm willing to be proved wrong!

And Kevin, through my 20 years of service in the Navy (about 15 year of that either on Air Force bases or in joint service environments), I've never heard of anyone wearing a unit award unless they were attached to the unit for some portion of the award period. In essence, the award says the unit was outstanding back then, not today.

I'll allow for the possibility that the Army may do it that way (James can confirm that one way or the other), but I can state categorically that the Navy and Marine Corps don't do it the way you suggest, and I'm highly confident that the same is true for the Air Force.

For those who served, yes. There are however many folks that dont have the foggest idea what a silver star is awarded for, and for these people the V-designation is all the more impressive.

That it was listed by Kerry's website is curious in that it shows that his campaign is either similarly unaware, or sought to hoodwink those unaware.

At least, that's the rule as I understood it, from when a similar question was raised only weeks ago.

Carpeicthus: I saw that one yesterday. The award in question is a unit citation rather than a personal award. There would be no value to Bush in wearing it--it's about heraldry rather than personal achievement--so I presume it's some sort of snafu.