Was a previous post about the Purple Heart and I didn’t want to hijack it.

It wasn’t until 10 years ago that I realized my uncle was an oak leaf cluster recipient, and I’m not entirely sure if it was all Purple Hearts …or what.
He passed away on Christmas Day in 2006. From what I was told
He served 2 tours in Vietnam, was injured both times.
The last one was pretty bad.
He was with a few of his fellow soldiers and they got separated from the others.. they hid inside of a cave or hole. Of some kind and they were sniffed out by dogs( I didn’t know that the viet cong had dogs for that purpose).
They threw gernades down in there and only 2 survived,, my uncle and another guy.
He was full of shrapnel and badly injured.
He still had shrapnel in his body when he passed I guess.

He was pretty smart,,, was studying to become a ranger for the United States national park service.
The war messed him up.. both physically and mentally.

Was your uncle in the army or a different branch ? The oakleaf is applicable to several different awards but from your description it sounds probable that it denoted the second award of the purple heart or possibly some other personal decoration or unit citation. Marines or navy use a small star instead of the oakleaf.

I never saw or knew of the VC or the NVA to use dogs. They DID however put bounties on dog handlers and the dogs themselves.

The small star denotes a combat award, never used for subsequent awards as far as I ever heard. I believe all branches were the same.

I am pretty sure that marines and navy use a small star for subsequent awards rather than the oakleaf


Purple heart is only given for wounds received in combat. Even if the wound is a result of friendly fire it must still be an active combat circumstance

I think Ken has it right about the oak leaf cluster, they denote a previous receiving of the same award or decoration and are used by the Army and Air force. If you earn five bronze oak leaf clusters for the same award you replace them with a silver oak leaf cluster.

They are not used to differentiate awards earned in combat or not.

I don't know about the stars used by those other branches.

Hey Bob........perhaps you are thinking of the V device attached to some specific awards ..those are absolutely awarded "specifically for individual acts of heroism, valor, or combat-related personal hazard"