Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal auto included a star

[gjones]

I was building my father-in-law's rack (he was in the Army at the end of W.W. II doing occupation duty in Korea) and the finished product included a bronze service star on the asiatic-pacific campaign medal, this was not noted on his DD-214. Please advise.

[gjones]

I tried it again, this time I changed the '1' that was auto filled in, to a '0' and it did not have a campaign star. Is this the way it is supossed to work?

[mechinfantry]

The basic rule with most including the asiatic-pacific campaign medal is that for each campaign you are in you recieve a star. Therefor if you where in 1 campaign you have the ribbon and one star. You do not recieve the ribbon only. The best example would be the desert storm campaign medal because I do not know the criteria for the asiatic-pacific campaign medal. there was only 3 campaigns in desert storm you get 3 stars on the ribbon and the DD-214 would not say how may stars you have be cause it is an automatic with time served. So what you need to find out is the date he arrived and date he left, then find out the seperate campaign dates to determine how many stars he earned. here is a quick example if this was at all confusing.

Campaign 1 January 12, 1990 - June 18, 1990
Campaign 2 June 19, 1990 - February 2, 1991
Campaign 3 February 3, 1991 - September 6, 1991

If you servered
June 10, 1990 - February 3, 1991
Then you are eligable for all 3 capaign stars, if you served one day in a campagin you are eligable because you participated in it.
I am farly cirtain that is the case if you read the regulation on the medal it should clarify. I will try to find it and post it on the main page with the rest of the campagin regulations.

[mechinfantry]

OK I found the campaigns, These are for the Army and Army Airforce

Burma 1941-1942
Philippine Islands 1941-1942
Central Pacific 1941-1943
East Indies 1942
Aleutian Islands 1942-1943
Papua 1942-1943
Air Offensive, Japan 1942-1945
China Defensive 1942-1945
India-Burma 1942-1945
Bismark Archipelago 1943-1944
New Guinea 1943-1944
Northern Solomons 1943-1944
Eastern Mandates (Air) 1943-1944
Eastern Mandates (Ground) 1944
Leyte 1944-1945
Luzon 1944-1945
Western Pacific 1944-1945
Central Burma 1945
China Offensive 1945
Ryukyus 1945
Southern Philippines 1945
Air Combat 1941-1945
Anti Submarine 1941-1945
Ground Combat 1941-1945

[John Asendorf]

This award (as with most "war-specific" medals) is issued for service during a specific time period, in a specific place. Each of the specific places/times during which one served receives a campaign star. Since one must have served during one of the listed campaigns to receive the medal the minimum that it could have is 1 campaign star.

The stars on these medals should not be confused with those issued for "subsequent awards."

[mechinfantry]

Yea what he said LOL but much shorter

[gjones]

Ok, let me make sure I understand, he was in Korea from 45-46, I don't know if he saw actual comabt as he has an expert infantryman badge not a CIB, so the following campaigns fall into that time period:

Air Offensive, Japan 1942-1945
China Defensive 1942-1945
India-Burma 1942-1945
Leyte 1944-1945
Luzon 1944-1945
Western Pacific 1944-1945
Central Burma 1945
China Offensive 1945
Ryukyus 1945
Southern Philippines 1945
Air Combat 1941-1945
Anti Submarine 1941-1945
Ground Combat 1941-1945

Out of all of those I think only these would apply as all I know is that he was in the infantry and did occupation duty in Korea from 45-46:
China Defensive 1942-1945
China Offensive 1945
Ground Combat 1941-1945

Is there somewhere I can get more detailed information on where and when about those campaigns?

Also I guess I don't completely understand as your post in the criteria forum says that the cut-off date is Mar 46, but none of the campaigns listed go out that far.

[gjones]

He was in Kilo Company, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. I found the Unit Citation and Campaign Participation Credit Register at http://www.usapa.army.mil/pdffiles/p672_1.pdf There it listed Leyte and Ryukyus as campaigns that this unit participated in, but I guess I still would need to know more specific dates on the campaigns to tell if he was in both. And I saw in the actual campaign listing for the medal that the Navy had operations out to 1946, so that clears up that.

[John Asendorf]

All I can really say is, "welcome to the nightmare that is 'military regs regarding medals.'"

[gjones]

Thanks John, I totally see what you mean. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything obvious.