Military medals question

Got a story about a guy who received a purple heart and bronze star in Vietnam. Are purple heart and bronze star capitalized? Can't find it in the style guide.

 

Dictionary says Purple Heart. Doesn't matter what it says for Bronze Star ... if you cap the one, you should cap the other.

 

Bronze Star is capitalized. It is the formal name of the honor, like Purple Heart, Medal of Honor...

 

Thanks for the help, fellas. I was proofreading that story on deadline, and couldn't believe there wasn't an entry in the style guide for it. Luckily, there's always the trusty folks at SportsJournalists.com.

 

Not for nothing, but in the course of your proofing on any military stories ... I would advise checking Doug Sterner's homeofheroes.com site just to fact-check the information you've got on any higher medals. (Bronzes and Purple Hearts are too numerous, however.)

I recently edited an obit where the family had the wrong information for the Silver Star their guy earned in World War II. I checked it out and found the correct information on that site.

Some of you may remember that Doug showed up here after the Pat Putnam debacle a few months back. His site is one of the most extensive databases in the world on military medals.

 

Capitalize the medal (Purple Heart, Navy Cross, Medal of Honor, etc.), but if there are oak leaf clusters involved with medal, usually associated with Bronze Stars and Silver Stars, no need to make caps of those.

 

That should be homeofheroes.com, right Buck?

 

I wouldn't even have noticed but I just tried to copy and paste the address and it didn't work, of course.
I'm marking an E-BW in my book, but your fielding percentage is still in the .980s, so I won't get too worked up about it.

 

Yes, medals are capitalized. But if there are oak-leaf clusters or V-devices involved, you might want to explain what those mean.

 

I didn't earn any medals. But, I received plenty of "kicks in the ass."
I'm thinking of capitalizing from now on. For formality sake.