Ulsterman

This is the Resistance medal-

Hmmmmmm.....I was googling Ethiopian teachers medal a few months ago when I came across the ETA site. I confess I never sent them an email, but did see articles about Long service medals being awarded. There are a number of small but VERY interesting Ethiopian veterans societies out there. The largest one I have found is in the DC area and is the Harrar Military Academy Alumni Association. As a number of these elderly men fought for the Derg, they seem to be somewhat reticent about their experiences. Still, they will know the truth about these medals. One guy in DC, a pilot, won the Hero of Ethiopia" medal. The surviving Patriot vets in Ethiopia need everything, even minimal stuff, like food. The Patriots website, which seems to have been put up by a fellow amateur historian, does not respond to my emails. I'd feel better about sending some of these folks$100 or so if I knew it was actually going to get to some deserving ancient veteran.

wow! the teacher medals are Still awarded today! I believe the ribbon for the Imperial medal and the contemporary medal is the red,yellow,green national colors. the ethiopian teachers guild has a website, in English that mentions these long service medals. The resistance medal is amazingly rare and the more I read I am beginning to think it was only awarded to a select few in Addis and other cities in 1949-1951 or so. Patriots who fought in the countryside all got the Patriots medal. I got my imperial resistance medal off ebay. They show up about once every six months or so and often are in Mappin and Webb boxes.

Very cool.

The Italian Bruni sisters....in bikinis...Something witty that I think Chris posted. I read it just before your topic came up and had a rather different image in mind....Italian models, Sarkozy era....

Interesting stuff and beautifully made. I have a couple of articles about the L bunds activities. good stuff. I always wondered if they had a flag.

You know after the Bruni post I was a little disappointed to find these. cool though.

Fantastic collection. I love the fact you have one of everything.

whoa, real gold? are there award numbers? can you trace a badge recipient by the number?

Darn.

well, well. I must have passed Reynolds siblings many times in my life and maybe even met them a few times. Odds are the present Governor of Maine , Paul LePage, is a nephew of Reynold as one of his sisters married a LePage. There is a guy who is named for his KIA Uncle who lives in Massachusetts and is active in the Scouts. I am positive I knew his cousin, Nicole Bergeron, as she used to be a teller at the neighborhood Credit Union. I suspect I knew his Reynold's fiancee too. All of Reynold's brothers are now dead, but he has a couple of sisters who are still alive. Another of his brothers served in WW2, got married in 1946 after coming home, got divorced shortly thereafter and died in 1951. How that medal ended up on the market is a mystery. my guess is someone cleaned out the parents house and sold it, either that or the infamous Rumford Purple Heart engraver/ faker manufactured this by looking up obscure Maine obituaries. This medal is really poignant and means a lot to me, as I lived in L-A for over two decades. Reynald 's parents or grandparents came down to Lewiston from Quebec to work in the shoe mills on the Androscoggin river in the 1890s/early 1900s. His Dad, Alphonse, was born in 1900 and his Mom in 1896, both in northern Quebec. They were part of the great Franco migration into Maine. most Franco American families were the classic American work,family,community, church story. 95 percent of the Franco Americans were staunch Catholics and staunch Roosevelt Democrats. Families were often large, sometimes very large. Families with 10 kids were not uncommon. Many kids dropped out of school after the 8th grade and went to work somewhere, usually an 8 to 12 hour shift in a mill or shop. Most families speak French (Quebec ois ) as a first language and the older Francos often have a French accent. Odds are Reynald spoke French fluently, although his Québécois and the local patois in Normandy was about as similar as modern English and Elizabethian English. My next door neighbor fought in Normandy and although he was technically an interpreter, he said the locals had a hard time with his accent. his Harvard educated Yankee Lieutenant did most of the talking, but my neighbor understood most everything he heard. Most of the major mill cities in Maine actually have a regional accent , a FRENCH local accent! You can actually tell if a person is from Waterville or Biddeford Sanford and Lewiston by the way they pronounce "avec." In the 1930 s and 1940s Lewiston was a bustling, busy, hard working place and most people worked in the shoe mills (like Reynald) their entire lives.He worked in the Federal Shoe mill, which was a massive mill and made quality shoes. today it is overpriced condos on the river. In those days people worked very hard for a little money and took great pride in their work. they went to St Peter and Paul's church in downtown Lewiston and as Reynold was from Baxter Ave. It was a ten minute walk to the basillica. Baxter Ave. was mostly built in the 1930s and Reynold lived in a smaller house (by today's standards) with his numerous family members. As I recall, most of the houses are about 1000 square feet or so, with .25 acre yards. It's a nice neighborhood and when Reynald called it home the tram stopped there and took you into town (about a half mile) for 5 cents. Born in 1920, I do not know if he graduated from High School, but I would bet he did, as he was originally on a warrant officers list when he enlisted down in Portland. He had the American Defense ribbon. Had he not been killed during the last German counter attack of the Normandy campaign, I reckon he would have fought on until the Bulge, where a lot of his comrades seem to have become casualties. Had he lived, I reckon he'd have come home and lived in Lewiston/Auburn all his life. He'd have got married to Jeanne in St Peters, gone to Mass every week, joined the VFW and the Knights of Columbus, worked his ass off for 45 years, 50 weeks a year, 8 -10 hours a day and never taken sick leave unless his wife made him. Hed have smoked Luckys and voted Democrat almost every time, with the exceptions of Eisenhower, Reagan and Olympia of course. He'd have hunted and fished, fixed stuff around the house and dreamed of owning a camp on a lake up north one day........coached little league, watched the Red Sox and Patriots religiously, drunk Budweiser and whiskey and probably never, ever, ever have talked about the war......except maybe a few times with his brothers at family picnics or when his own son came back from Vietnam.

Wow- I used to live 6 doors down from his fiancees' old house- 144 Bartlett Street. It is still there. The Lewiston Sun Journal is still going strong, as is the VFW in Lewiston. if you write to the local Androscoggin History society (c/0 the Town Hall in Auburn on Center Street), you might get more information. Address the letter to Doug Hodgekin. There are still a few people in L-A who will have known him around. If you ever want to sell that one, let me know.

yup. by the way, where did you find the Dragomir article? I have looked everywhere.

Thanks Claudio! This was a really interesting thread. I was so inspired I went and bought my first Italian medal bar. Thanks again.

Whoa! is that the eagle of the 84 th Regiment casually stuck down in the left hand corner? :0

yup, you can see them wearing them at funerals and other ceremonies. most of their original medals were taken by souvenir hounds as contraband.

fantastic medal group. with the Saxe Gotha medal it is superb...and maybe identifiable? is the bar 1914/15?

Test2. Trying the iPad upload app. Note this veteran , who earned a title akin to knighthood for battlefield bravery, used the same ribbon for the UN medal where the others wore out. Ribbons do not seem to last long in Ethiopia. his life story is in the excellent book, ' Ethiopian Patriots.' he also was awarded the St. George medal for bravery for single handidly taking out an Italian machine gun. later the Emperor gave him several acres of land for his service. note also his British war medals, denoting he was part of the exiled group of Patriots who crossed the border and attacked with the Gondor force.

test? trying out the IPad uploaded. note the wounded Patriot on left is wearing a very tattered gold Derg Police service medal.

Wow! I had no idea the Italian military was in as many places since 1945! Claudio- have you ever considered an article for the JOMSA about these perhaps?

Wonderful WW1 bar. Interesting he wasn't in long enough to get a LSGC either.

Thanks! I did not even know mission badges existed. Are they official awards?

Very cool. Where did you find copies of the Derg decrees? Did it specify the ribbon?

Thanks Dave.

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_03_2013/post-171-0-65168400-1364267324.jpgCool. Are there two classes? Is it the custom to pin awardees' medals to a unit flag, or has the unit also been decorated with the medal here? My Italian is sadly lacking-is this a unit flag? Its from last years Italian Army Parade -along with this snapshot of a newer awardee (presumably for Iraq). Or is that only the merit medal in first place?