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Silver Star
The Silver Star Medal is the United States' third-highest military award exclusively for combat valor, ranking fifth in the overall precedence of military decorations. It is awarded for "gallantry in action" during military operations involving conflict and is the highest award for combat valor not specific to any single branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. The medal can be bestowed by any military branch—including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marines—to their own members, members of other branches, foreign allies, and even civilians supporting U.S. combat missions. More information about the history of the Silver Star Medal and who made the Silver Star that Charles H. Coolidge was awarded can be found below.
Citation
Headquarters, 36th Infantry Division, General Orders No. 284 (1944)
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant Charles Henry Coolidge (ASN: 34286521), United States Army, for gallantry in action while serving with Company M, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, on 31 May 1944 in Italy.
Sergeant Coolidge’s machine gun section had participated in a forced night march to cut off the enemy garrison in a beleaguered strong-point. Shortly after daylight the battalion made contact with the enemy and deployed for a fight. Operating in support of a rifle company, the machine gun section received severe sniping and point blank fire from self-propelled guns. When the enemy counterattacked in strength, Sergeant Coolidge and the other members of the machine gun section greated them with devastating fire and inflicted many casualties. Approximately a company of enemy threatened the left flank. Quickly moving their guns to an exposed position only twenty-five yards from the nearest enemy, Sergeant Coolidge and his company used a free traverse to place such an effective fire on the onrushing foe that those not killed or wounded were panicked into scattered disorganization and made easy to capture. Thus the threat was dispelled largely because of the quick-witted courage of Sergeant Coolidge and his comrades. His gallant action reflects great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States.
The Silver Star Medal, America’s third-highest award for valor, was first authorized in 1932 as a replacement for the tiny World War I “Citation Star” device. The redesign was created by Rudolf Freund of the prestigious jewelry firm Bailey, Banks & Biddle (BB&B) of Philadelphia, who became the sole manufacturer of the medal during its early years. Between 1932 and the early stages of World War II, every Silver Star awarded by the U.S. Army came from BB&B. Many of these were presented retroactively to World War I veterans who had earned the Citation Star, while others went to new recipients in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
An authentic BB&B Silver Star has several key features. Each medal is made of gilt bronze with a small silver star applied at the center of a laurel wreath. Every BB&B issue carries an impressed serial number along the lower edge—there is no such thing as an unnumbered example from this period. The suspension loop is stamped “BBB Co / Phila,” and early medals were fitted with a distinctive split wrap brooch. These medals were often issued in presentation cases with a ribbon bar and lapel pin, and known numbered examples run into the tens of thousands, though the precise end of BB&B’s production range is not documented. The version of Silver Star that was presented to Charles Coolidge is one of these BB&B models and the serial number on the medal he was awarded is 32975, as can be seen in the photos above.
By mid-World War II, additional manufacturers began producing Silver Stars to meet demand, and the Navy began awarding its own under new authority in 1942. But the BB&B pieces from the interwar and early WWII years remain especially prized for their craftsmanship, their place in the evolution of U.S. military decorations, and their direct connection to both the heroes of World War I and the first soldiers to be decorated in World War II.