On July 9, 1918, Congress created the Citation Star as a small silver device worn on the Victory Medal to denote that a soldier had been officially cited in orders for gallantry in action. The award was later applied retroactively to earlier conflicts—including the Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish–American War, Philippine Insurrection, and China Relief Expedition—giving veterans a visible emblem of heroism previously recorded only in written citations. In 1932, the War Department replaced the device with the Silver Star Medal, allowing Citation Star holders to exchange their ribbon attachment for a full decoration recognizing their gallantry.
The creation of the Silver Star Medal marked a shift in how the nation understood battlefield courage. By replacing a tiny device on a campaign ribbon with a full medal bearing its own ribbon and design, the War Department elevated the idea that valor deserved a visible, enduring place within the architecture of American military honors. The new medal gave long‑forgotten acts of heroism a physical form that families could display, soldiers could wear, and the Army could formally record—transforming scattered citations in dusty orders into a unified tradition of valor.
This photographic record preserved the faces of two of the earliest known Citation Star recipients: Army nurses Irene Robar and Linnie Leckrone, each captured in separate portraits now held in the National Archives. Both women were cited for gallantry in France in July 1918 while serving on Shock Team No. 134, carrying courage into operating rooms set up within range of enemy guns. Their colleague, Jane Rignel, Chief Nurse of Mobile Hospital No. 2 and likewise among the earliest cited after the decoration’s creation, is not shown. Together, these three women helped shape the earliest chapter of the Silver Star’s history, proving that the architecture of honor was built not only by soldiers at the front but also by those who met danger in the service of saving others.
Image: Two of the earliest known Citation Star recipients, Irene Robar and Linnie Leckrone, appear in separate portraits preserved in the National Archives.
