ostprussenmann_new

What a treasure. Congrats. Those always make the best pieces of a collection; straight from the family. I hope you hold on to this and cherish it for a long time. You should try to get a phot or at least a copy also.

To me it looks like an unissued M-1 Carbine 15rnd mag, but the pictures could be fooling my eyes. If the pictures could have something next to it for size comparison like a ruler or pencil then it would be easier to give a 100% answe.

Can you post an image of the Cadet uniform? I think it may be a Senior Privates Uniform for the Military College of South Carolina, Citadel. Also, that US Army Dress green jacket is a little shady. The insignia on the left sleeve is for Special Forces. If it is dated for around the Vietnam era, they never wore a Special Forces Tab, they only wore the Black and Yellow Airborne Tab because it was not created at the time. If it is dated for more Modern times, before the US Army switched to the ASU, then the patch was just sewn on there. The Special Forces tab should have a Black and Yellow Airborne tab underneath it. The Arrowhead with Airborne tab signifies the unit, the "long tab" is qualification. That uniform is not accurately put together. All you would have to do is get the brass and insignia, move the arrowhead down and sew the airborne tab underneath it. Great find though.

Honestly leave it alone. I agree with Claudius. You devalue the item when you clean it and a lot of the cleaners have stuff in them that will ruin your piece over time. I wanted to restore a pair of Bergschuhe and was going to clean them to pull the dirt out of them. My leather was really dry. I was going to polish them after cleaning them. Instead I just put a light coat of Pecard Leather Dressing on them to soften the leather up; with my finger. That is it, and they are fine. Be very careful with cloth.

I never heard of the Ketchup, but I will have to remember it. I always try to not remove Patina, however, when I do cleaning I use a q-tip with some rubbing alcohol just to clean out dirt and the yuck, but I never try to remove the Patina. Good luck Marine.

I always love groups from Baden Leib Grenadier Regiment Nr. 109, RIR 109, and LR Nr. 109. Very nice group.

This is researchable. What makes this even more interesting is the American Defense Medal (1st one second row). That means this guy was in prior to the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. You narrow it down for looking for units with two Battle Campaigns (not as common as you think)for the Asian-Pacific Theater Medal (5th Mini medal 1st Row) Next I would start looking for USMC officers (with proper Age [remember prior to Pearl Harbor] who were awarded the DFC in WWII and Korea. Next you have a Curve Ball. The NDSM without a Campaign Star.The NDSM was first authorized during Korea, however, this man had a Vietnam Campaign Medal w/ one Campaign Star, but no star on NDSM (he should have a star on it also). This tells me he was in the early stages of Vietnam, but possibly not long (most likely a staff officer). He is also missing the South Vietnam issued Campaign Medal (the green and white one). Finally, you have an Air Medal, with no V's, so this man earned his for Strike Flights. Would be interested in what you find.

Serious Help Needed: I need to find a replacement stock for a Lanchester SMG. I have a display gun and the gun was dropped and stock cracked. Any friends overseas have access to one?

This is an interesting post. It could have been a simple error of the PAC Clerk due to a rush to complete records before War's end.. Hench this example: When my unit first redeployed from Iraq. We had a bunch of new people in my Battalion that was in the unit over the last two months. Our unit saw so much combat that they decided to give Combat Action Badges and Combat Infantry Badges in mass to everyone who did not have their paperwork completed so they could get everyone's awards before everyone either got out or PCSed. Well because the ADMIN team just submitted an entire Battalion Manifest to the Division S-1, there were people who ended up getting awarded CABs and CIBs, legitimately, who never left our duty station. So why do I share this? Well maybe that was the case of this guy. The unit commander wanted to award everyone EKIIs as Service medal instead of a Valor award to people in his regiment or battalion as the war ended. My great grandpa was in a Baden unit. He was awarded his EKII for value in early 1918, however, within days of him mustering out of service he was also awarded a promotion to Gefreiter and the Baden Silver Merit Medal (Baden EKII Equivalent) and a thanks for service and thanks for surviving award. I would not be surprised that guys in his unit that were brand new at least got a Baden silver Merit medal within days of the war ending as a service award. Just my two cents.

Family members stuff is always priceless. congrats on having it.

Interesting. Most Gefreiters did not earn the EKI. The only other one that I can think of was Adolf Hitler with the List Regiment.

It could be an older model of an Enlisted Aide to a 3-star. Aides wear special branch insignia with a number of stars of the GO that they support.

Great find

I love the silver finish. Even if it's post war and the price is right, I would get it.

This is old news. The colors of the ribbon have something to do with Eddie Riddenbacher. The USAF is the most broken branch of the US military when it comes to awards. You can get a ribbon for shinning your shoes the best in basic training. I laugh anytime the the air forces introduces a new award to help their egos. They just made another medal for guarding nukes also.

Chrissy, I am happy things are working out for you. I can't say enough how much that I have appreciated this forum and its members compared to some others.

There are three that I really like. 1) The ribbon bar with the 25 Device on it is the following (I believe)-This guy was an officer and most likely a pretty senior one. ~going Left to Right Prussian 1870 Iron Cross Second Class with 25 Oakleaf Prussian House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight's Cross with Swords House Order of Hohenzollern with swords (merit medal) Knight’s Cross with Oakleaf of the Order of the Zähringer Lion in 1st or 2nd Class Bavarian Military Merit Order with crown and swords (officer level); either 3d or 4th Class Order of the Griffon (State Order of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin) either 2d or 3d Class Kaiser Wilhelm I Centennial Medal 2) The one with the 1914 EKII and with two wreaths is as follows: 1914 Iron Cross 2d Class Bavarian Military Merit Order with crown and swords (officer level); 4th Class (has silver swords and crown) Württemberg Order of Military Merit Baden Karl-Friedrich Order of Military Merit (awarded to officers) *Two others I don’t know 3) The 4-place ribbon bar with white ribbon and black stripes 1914 EK II (non-combatants) Prussia War Merit/Effort Cross Hindenburg War Cross (non combatants) *Last one I don’t know

I would first try the link Tony provided. I have found researching British Medals are a lot easier than German ones. As for Chrissy, I would provide documentation of proof of him being your relative and send it tot he owner. Most people respect that and normally things work out. Best of luck to both of you.

The three Long Service Awards are strange. Chris, do you have a photo of the back

I just read this story earlier today. Maybe is was a bad excuse for incompetence?

Sorry have not been on the forum for a while. I will post some pics of the waffenrock and EM visor

Hucks, thank you so much for trying to help and for sharing the download. I really appreciate it.

I am not smart on all of this TRM stuff, but in my friends SS Tunic there is a number stamped by the collar of the tunic. It is 9208 or 19208. Would this be a a SS Man's Serial Number of sort or just a factory stamping? I know it is not the SS BW stamping, because that there is there also on the Right side of the tunic. Sorry i don't have photos at this time, but I just noticed it when I was helping him get ready for the MAX show. There are no other tunics with this stamp in it. Would you mind checking just to be sure? Thanks.

I find this a particular interesting Ribbon Bar. IWhat makes this interesting is that he has a Vietnam Campaign Medal and a NDSM w/o a Bronze Service Star as well as a AFEM. This lineage on this bar has quite a story. With the amount of Air Medals that he has, this person was surely a pilot. Funny thing with pilots is that if they fly over a certain deployment zone, they qualify for the award, unlike ground troops normally have to be on ground and not near the deployment zone to be awarded the campaign medal. I would be interested to see what deployment zone he was supporting as a aviator to earn the AFEM.

Thanks for the clarification and your insight. Definitely does Paul. Thanks for sharing. The reason that I asked was that I had an opportunity to buy a Pionier M-38 Waffenrock and I saw a Signal Badge on the upper sleeve and I had thought that all trade badges were worn on the lower left sleeve, until Fred Green shared his post. I just wanted to make sure it was authentic as well as gain a little more knowledge on the subject since I was clueless on tradebadges. I appreciate everyone's help. If anyone would like to see my grouping (got it with an EM Visor) please let me know and I will post it.