WE GUARD OUR ANCIENT HONORS
UNIT DECORATION STREAMERS
FOR US ARMY FLAGS, COLORS & GUIDONS
Image Added July 2012
Combat Action Streamer
US Army units that have been awarded US or foreign unit decorations display them as streamers on their organizational colors, flags and guidons. Generally, these streamers are made in the colors of the ribbon of the decoration and are inscribed with the action for which the unit was decorated or the theater of war in which meritorious service was rendered.
Army units may accept decorations from other branches of the US Armed Forces or from foreign allied armed forces when authorized by the Secretary of the Army. For the US Presidential Unit Citation, the colors of the streamer are determined by the branch that sponsors the award for the Army unit concerned. Dates are added to inscriptions when necessary to distinguish among two or more awards of the same decoration. A wreath, called the Earned Honor Device, is added at the fly end of the streamer to denote decorations earned specifically by battalions of regiments in the combat arms. Unit decoration streamers are authorized for guidons only when the decoration has been earned specifically by the company-sized unit concerned.
Units twice cited in the Order of the Day of the French Army and awarded the Croix d'Guerre with Palm exchange the streamer of the Croix d'Guerre for a streamer in the colors of the Medaille Militaire.
The Combat Infantry Streamer and the Combat Medical Streamer are awarded to infantry and medical units only when a specified percentage of their personnel have been awarded the Combat Infantry Badge or the Combat Medical Badge. Second and subsequent awards of the Combat Infantry Streamer are denoted by the addition of a star at the fly end of the streamer. The Combat Action Streamer may be awarded to any unit when a specified percentage of its personnel have been awarded the Combat Action Badge.
Unit decoration streamers are authorized in three sizes as follows. For the Organizational Color of the 3rd Infantry (The Old Guard): 2 3/4-inch hoist by 4-foot fly. For all other Army flags and colors: 2 3/4-inch hoist by 3-foot fly. For guidons: 1 3/8-inch hoist by 2-foot fly.
