A Guide to the US Armed Forces’ Battle Streamers

Battle streamers, also known as campaign streamers, are pieces of fabric typically attached to a staff or flagpole. Streamers are used to represent specific battles or achievements of the military unit that is displaying the staff or flagpole.

In the United States, battle streamers are designed as striped ribbons and generally attached at the top of a flagpole displaying a specific branch’s or unit’s flag. The striped patterns used each match a specific campaign or theater of war and are also used on campaign medals and ribbon bars, the striped pins on an officer’s jacket. 

Campaign streamers were first established in the USA in 1920, for the Army. The Marine Corps adopted their use in 1939. Later, the Air Force began using streamers in 1956, the Coast Guard in 1968, and the Navy in 1971. Since 2019, when the Space Force was designated as its own military branch, it now also has its own branch-specific set of streamers.

There are two major ways that the US Armed Forces branches categorize their campaign streamers, which makes a direct comparison of the total counts seem inconsistent. However, the simplest answer is that the Army has the most battle streamers at 190.

The first method, used by the Army, Air Force, and Space Force, involves multiple copies of the same campaign streamer, each inscribed with a unique battle name. Thus, these branches have a variety of campaign streamers with different striped patterns, but also multiple duplicates of the same striped streamer with different battle inscriptions. If this is hard to visualize, take a look at the U.S. Army Center of Military History’s full list of the Army’s streamers. This list shows all of the unique battle streamers awarded to the Army, as well as how many copies of each campaign streamer there are, and which battles are inscribed on those copies.

The second method, used by the Marines and the Navy, uses a single campaign streamer to represent the entire campaign. All battles or actions within that campaign are displayed on the same streamer using bronze or silver stars, red numerals, and occasionally additional medals such as palms. A bronze star represents an action, and a silver star stands for five bronze stars. Red numerals are typically reserved for citation and commendation streamers, with the number symbolizing how many times the citation or commendation has been awarded to units in that branch.

The Coast Guard uses a system similar to that of the Marines and the Navy, with only one copy of each campaign streamer. However, the Coast Guard is unique in that it uses no service stars. Only two Coast Guard streamers feature a medal of any kind: the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross Streamer and the Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Streamer, both of which have gold palms, representing foreign military medals awarded to this branch.

The US Marine Corps has a total of 55 campaign streamers. However, some specific displays may contain a higher number of streamers, even though the Marine Corps doesn’t have unique streamers for each battle within a campaign. This is because some streamers now hold so many service stars and medals that they can no longer fit on one streamer alone! For example, up to four copies of the Navy Unit Commendation Streamer may be used to display all 22 silver stars and 3 bronze stars associated with the streamer.

The US Navy currently holds 34 campaign streamers. Like the Marine Corps, duplicates are not used for individual battles. However, in some streamer displays, you may see two copies of the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Streamer, so that all 8 silver stars and 3 bronze stars can be displayed.

The US Air Force has 135 battle streamers and uses the same method as the Army for having duplicate versions of campaign streamers to represent individual battles. 

Caeden has been part of Flags.com’s marketing team and the flag & flagpole business since 2023. With a B.A. in Anthropology, he analyzes the development and use of flags worldwide, past and present. When he isn’t researching flags, you can find him caring for his pet pigeon and growing vegetables in the backyard.