According to Bender and many others, the Army Good Conduct medal was first authorized and issued on June 1941 and amended in 1943 and 1944. It was allowed for each three year period of enlistment AFTER 27 August 1940. For the first award, only one year served between Dec. 7, 1941 and March 2, 1946 is required for the medals' award......or if you were KIA before one year of service. Often the army GCM is the only actual medal a guy received after getting his ruptured duck in late 1944 or 1945. The Victory medals were issued starting in early 1945. There is an excellent OMSA article about these. The picture below was taken in March, 1945 in the UK.