W McSwiggan

Interesting set. Indicative of distinguished combat performance during Vietnam. Either an Army enlisted man or a prior enlisted officer. I suspect enlisted or there would have been another BSM for meritorious service. No Air Medal - unusual because it was hard to get shot at enough to earn multiple purple hearts, a BSM for heroism & Silver Star without getting a fair amount of combat assault air mobile missions! Finally, the order of precedence is incorrect for the period of hostilities. During the "war games", the Purple Heart ranked after the Army Commendation Medal. The "promotion" of this award to immediately behind the BSM happened in the late 70's/early 80's as I recall. This individual appears to have stayed in the service long enough to have had to rearrange his stuff. That said, why no additional awards of the Good Conduct?

Perhaps this link will help you do your work. http://www.worldmedals.co.uk/Rib/germrib.htm

Per Franks, Baily & Duivan ("The Jasta Pilots"), there were 4 Marine Jasta bases: Aertrycke (SW), Coolkerke (N), Jabbeke (SW) and Neumeunster (NW) all clustered around Brugge and they housed the 4 Jagdstaffeln. Other sources indicate a 5th Jasta. All were ultimately subordinated to the MJG. Do not have ready access to non-fighter unit information.

Heart-stopping beauty & detail! Hank ain't bad either!!!

Considering the collection of badges by position: 1, 2, 3 4, 5, 6 7, 8, 9 Number one looks like a legitimate current US Army Aviator?s Badge (subdued & full sized). Number three also looks legitimate ? current US Army Master Aviator?s Badge ? non-subdues & reduced size. Number 9 is also a standard sized current US Army Senior Aviator?s Badge. These three badges are NOT World War II vintage.

Please don't wrap fish with those :speechless1:

Per Krischer/Nimmergut Banderkatalog: RAO & Medal KO KHHO & Kreuz der Inhaber MVK MEZ I MEZ II KVM EK No pix ? sorry.

Thanks for the clarification Rick! The image of the ribbon bar with the unauthorized ribbons and appurtenances can be found in the thread ?Meet Prinz Georg von Sachsen-Meiningen Medal bar and research? or http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2298 For those easily confused such as myself ? the subject ? ol? Georg, is from the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, not the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar or the Kingdom of Saxony? phew ? that was some twisted thread for a while! (Sorry ? couldn?t resist the pun)

Posters - hell - I'm voting for wallpaper - I'm thinking livingroom...

We are all very fortunate that these treasures have been placed in your hands for safe keeping. Had they been lost...

Re: Grand Cross - not worn on medal or ribbon bar - either sash, neck or nowhere.

Thanks for sharing Jeff. Ouch! Very conflicted on that one. The medals would help the junior enlisted men by assigning extra promotion board points. Medals themselves are nice too. My appreciation is for non-aviation MOS folk, the missions needed to be CA. Also, with a requirement for 5 (I think) CAs for the award and your account of 3 or more ?sorties? (60 plus percent of the requirement), this activity was over the top in my estimation. I wonder if he was swapping out passengers between circuits. Like you, I can appreciate the commander?s motive but? that also serves to demote the decoration further to the detriment of those who earned it legitimately. Then there?s the matter of falsification of government documents ? those circuits were clearly not CA! Oh well, I?m sure stranger things have happened but I am pleased to report that my arrival in country was at the same time and I stayed beyond the end of exercise without witnessing such behavior. This leads me to conclude (hopefully) that this was an isolated incident.

Thanks! Not familiar with Jeff's story ? some pretty strange things did occur! Would like to hear more about neighbor McCauly. What unit, time frame, missions, specialty and all. Such stories need telling. West Point in fact is sponsoring an oral history project to capture such information before it is forever gone. We?ve lost the chance for the Great War and WWII is fast slipping away. Good thing Chuck & I are so youthful?

I have tried to ignore your insufferable posts but no longer can. Let?s see if this crybaby understands. 1 - You take umbrage with my post about people having strong critical opinions about matters outside their experience. 2 - You seem to have difficulty avoiding the phantom error even when called to your attention. 3 - The quoted post makes little to no logical sense other than the clear intent to insult the class of COMBAT veterans known as Vietnam Veterans and I will take that personally. 4 - You persist in these actions while hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet even when called out. 5 - You have decided that 25 hours of landing in hot LZs (that?s landing zones in case you weren?t there), taking fire from weapons ranging from small arms to heat seeking missiles is not worthy of recognition. The criteria for the award of the Air Medal were clear and established early in the Vietnam Conflict. I have seen no evidence of departure from those criteria during the conflict. Does not sound ?Out of Control? to me and I am a process control engineer. My uncle, a World War II 1st Marine Division infantry veteran who made all the major assaults with the division and went ashore as part of the occupying force in Japan never called me a crybaby. In fact, he was very respectful and appreciative of my experiences in Vietnam. You sir have insulted members of this forum and have demonstrated marginal (at best) fitness to be a participant. Please defend yourself if you can. What gives you the right to refute what you have not experienced? What gives you the right to behave outside the strictures of this group by such ungentlemanly behavior? You can start with service, rank and combat experience, thank you. Wayne McSwiggan Lieutenant Colonel, US Army, Retired USMA Class of 1969 800+ hour 1st Cavalry Division combat cobra veteran ? see the book ?Battle of An Loc? to better understand the significance - I was there, were you? Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism in Vietnam Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service in Vietnam Two Air Medals for Heroism in Vietnam Thirty-one Air Medals for Combat Assault missions in Vietnam Yup ? must be a crybaby?

My sense is that the official insignia was always without designation. Units were authorized to apply Regimental designations and even company (no longer the case) but these were always at the discretion the commander and a function of supply. Enlisted members could not be forced to purchase uniforms and were to be issued all their "authorized" equipment. Hence - should the unit decide to use branch brass with regimental designations - they had to figure out how to fund the procurement for hundreds of soldiers. Soldiers "in transit" without destination units designated on orders and those serving in training assignments as either trainees or cadre would also have no choice but to wear "plain" branch brass.

This stuff is simply magnificent!

Knew that but... this data is so valuable that I'd take rolls of quarters to the local library to copy if that's what it took. Clearly scanning into PDF is superior if one owns the necessary equipment.

Having seen these treasures first hand ? I would love to own something containing this information. Beyond that ? as discussed with Rick ? my first concern is the preservation of this ?one-of-a-kind? information! Photocopy, scan, PDF whatever ? the best safeguard is having multiple copies! Then ? allowing the rest of the world to obtain copies becomes prime. I personally find the ?pen & ink? changes rendered in Eric?s own hand to be very special and worthy of preservation. I would gladly manually photocopy the whole lot by hand to obtain a set!

Poor Chip ? hasn?t developed a taste for ironic humor? And just think ? this is one post you?ll have no trouble finding using the search utility! Bravo & thanks for sharing this ancient treasure.

I know that US Navy Uniform sales stores engage in mounting medals (after destroying the originals with huge scissors (much quicker taking the original awards apart that way!!!). They then use yukky new synthetic ribbon to mount the awards on bars. I suspect that one able to access these stores would be allowed to purchase lengths of ribbon directly from their local stock. Know any sailors???

This was a one grade decoration. The material used seems to be a function of availability of precious metals during the later phases of the war. Nimmergut's catalog indicates versions in aluminium as well as zinc & silver. I vaguely recall that the first award went to von Hindenburg and it was NOT zinc...

Klietmann is not a pricing catalogue. His book is a reference outlining Merit and Bravery Medals for Imperial Germany and Her allies for the period of WWI through WWII. Nimmergut's Orden & Ehrenzeichen Deutschland-Katalog 2001/2002 suggests 179 to 205 Euros depending on material at the time of publication. This information is both dated and was of questionable value as of the publication date in the expressed opinion of many on this forum.

Per Klietmann "5111 Friedrichs-Orden Ritterkreuze 2. mit Schwertern" were awarded during the Great War.

The second order is the Wurttemberger Frederick's Order. It was awarded in rather high numbers especially considering the size of the kingdom's contingent in the army - (pre-war, regulars at Corps strength). It ranked lower than the War Merit Order. The War Merit Order was the highest order given for military merit by the kingdom. Not a collector so I can't help with prices - sorry.

About the failure of Colonel Dwyer to advance beyond his apparently long held grade. The pre-war Army was small. I?m reminded of a story in Bradley?s book about the wonderful officer ? Van Fleet ?15 (classmate to Ike & Bradley). Went ashore for D Day with the 4th Infantry Division as a regimental commander and was magnificent. When Bradley was asked by Marshal via McNair, ?who looks good??, Bradley instantly replied ? Van Fleet ? can?t understand why he hasn?t been promoted. McNair?s reply ? too bad about his drinking! Bradley went nuts ? ?I know who you are talking about! Wrong Van Fleet! Van Fleet ended up a Corps commander by VE Day! (Makes you wonder about the Ike/Kay caper ? doesn?t it?) Any way ? lets go through some boiler plate math. Army has about the same numbers of generals now as during WWII. Let?s call that number (for simplicity?s sake 300). The Army had 89 divisions. These divisions had 6 colonel slots (One of the Asst. Div Cdrs, Chief of Staff, 3 Regiments & Division Artillery). About 540 Colonels in divisions alone! Rapid advancement happened when the Army expanded not after ? hence many stuck in grade of colonel. These were perhaps the cream but ? odds of making general were still pretty poor even amongst this group considering maybe 50 promotions to BG a year? After the war, the Army imploded again leaving the survivors to either be demoted or languish in grade forever. Beyond that ? medals are a distracter ? high ranking officers are real magnets. (I am not suggesting they were not deserving, rather that when they were ? it was noticed whereas lower ranks were often not). Final thought ? there is often a personality trait for excellent warriors that doesn?t enhance career growth to general. Air Force had the same issue ? note Zemke & Blackslee ? most famous fighter group commanders we had ? both stayed after the war but never promoted again ? retired as colonels. What was the issue with Dwyer? I can only guess that he was unlucky and did not rise to the competitive level amongst his star seeking peers.