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Oak Leaf Cluster |
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An Oak leaf cluster is a common device which is placed on military awards and
decorations to denote those who have received more than one bestowal of a
particular decoration. The number of oak leaf clusters typically indicates the
second and subsequent award of the decoration.
Most military awards use bronze, silver, and gold oak leaf clusters. The higher
ranking oak leaf clusters are issued "in lieu" of a lesser number, allowing a large
number of award annotations to fit on a single ribbon. For instance, five bronze
oak leaf clusters would be denoted by one silver and five silver by one gold.
The United States military only issues bronze and silver oak leaf clusters. Gold
oak leaf clusters were briefly considered as a device for the Air Medal, however
this was not adopted by any of the services.
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