Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster

Criteria: Bronze and Silver Oak Leaf Clusters are common devices placed on many United States military awards and decorations signifying multiple bestowals of a particular award. The number of oak leaf clusters indicates the second and subsequent awards of the decoration. One single oak leaf cluster, for example, is attached to the designated award and denotes a second award of that particular decoration. Service members do not wear more than one service ribbon on their ribbon rack even when they have received the award more than once. Instead, multiple awards are shown by attaching the oak leaves to the ribbon. One single oak leaf denotes the second award of that particular decoration. Two oak leaves denotes three awards. Four denote five awards. When the sixth award of a specific decoration is bestowed on the individual, a single “silver” bronze oak leaf is placed on the ribbon (as opposed to five bronze oak leaves). Oak leaves are most commonly employed by the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force to denote multiple awards. The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard typically employ Gold and Silver Stars to signify multiple awards. Specific use of these devices, however, vary between services.