These are the bar shaped medals/badges, some of which have stars on them. They are colored with stripes.
If he served in the US Navy then Bupers' precedence chart is a good place to start for identifying the ribbons.
Medals are more elaborate and include both the ribbon (the bar shaped colored bit) and the actual medal.
Stars usually denote multiple instances of the same award e.g. "with bronze star in lieu of second award".