Lukasz Gaszewski

Thanks Paul. Glad you liked it.

Lukasz

Ah! So Kev's is an officer's? Whew! I'm glad to learn mine is OK! I know these look horrible from the scans (though NOTHING is as cheap and nasty looking as the Bulgarian Soldiers' Crosses for Bravery ) but I'm sure Kev's is as nice as mine is, in the hand.

The finish, and finishing, is actually quite nice, and although starting to get spotty now after 60+ years, I won't try anything to clean this lest it remove what is quite decent matte gilt finish.

Does the lion's side or the initial "B" go on front?

Kev - congratulations on your officer rank, Rick - congratulations too and wish you getting promoted to officer asap!!!

Lukasz

BTW: the lion should go to the back.

Found these at a show today and could not resist--

a Boris III issue NCOs' X Years Service Cross (not sure if this is being worn correct obverse up?)

But is the X not supposed to be SILVER colored, and the XX gilded? This is gilt but bears an "X!"

It is OK! The Boris III type (which is on the photo) for 10-year service was in gilt bronze for non-commissioned ranks. Officers had the same type of cross, but in silver.

Cheers,

Lukasz

Wow!

There are many. Go to http://www.medals.lava.pl/us/uschk.htm and tick Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Surprisingly, CGA medals take precedence over the corresponding medals of other services (CGA Distinguished Service Award before other DSMs, CGA Commendation before other commendations etc.) when worn by CGA members. As far as I know, guardsmen or members of other services in the active service are not authorized to wear CGA awards. The only exception I know was Cmdr Harmon Raab who used to wear something that looked like the Commendation Award ribbon next to his other ribbons.

My recent acquisitions.

US CGA awards may seem a little boring, as there are only two types of planchet in use.

Type I:

This type is used only with the following awards (the reverse is blank):

All other awards/medals use type II planchet:

Depicted are the following medals: Flotilla CME Achievement Medal, Flotilla PEC Achievement Medal, Flotilla Public Relations Achievement Medal (all three are obsolete by now).

To my surprise even the new Auxiliary Legion of Merit (est. 2005) uses type II planchet:

(credit to www.cgaux.info)

Aaaaah!!!

I'm only disappointed about the quality

Bulgarian Red Cross Decoration for Merit (1st & 2nd Class) of 1908

Cheers,

Lukasz

The ribbon for Poland's Grand Cross Order of Polonia Restituta is missing the attachment.

That's right. So is that for Norway's Order of Olav, Czechoslovakia's White Lion, Japan's Chrysantemum and most others, while that for UK Royal Victorian Order does have one! It seems that the use of rosettes/wings here is purely arbitrary.

Lukasz

Antonio, where did you get these ribbons from? They are not from either of the two photos in the thread. Can you post the original photo, please? Perhaps it would be easier to id the remaining ribbons.

To me r5#4 looks like the Egyptian Order of Mohammad Ali, r7#1 - the Finnish Order of the White Rose, r10#3 - Portuguese Order of Infante Dom Henrique.

A small correction regarding the Emperor's Polish awards. In 1930 the Emperor was invested NOT with the Order of Polonia Restituta, but with the Order of the White Eagle (can be r8#4 or r9#4). The Order of Polonia Restituta (Grand Cross) was conferred to him during his visit to Poland in 1967 or 1968.

Best regards,

Lukasz

Seems difficult unless someone is deep in the subject.

I suggest you should write the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood. If someone can help, it is certainly them.

The address is:

CENTRAL CHANCERY OF THE ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD

St. James's Palace, London SW1

Best regards,

Lukasz

I think this is just the right section to put it up here, especially that the section is almost empty. On October 10, 2005 the Italian Parliament instituted a Cross of Honor for the Victims of Acts of Terrorism or Hostile Acts during Military or Civil Missions Abroad (Croce d?onore alle vittime di atti di terrorismo o di atti ostili impegnate in operazioni militari e civili all?estero).

This little known decoration is conferred by decree of the President of the Republic to the individuals deceased or permanently disabled (with over 80 per cent disability), as a direct result of an act of terrorism or a hostile act while performing a military or non-military operation abroad, provided the operation had been approved by the Italian Parliament. If a person is deceased, the cross goes to the spouse, children, brother, sister or parents od the deceased individual, or if there is not any, it remains the property of the community where the person lived. The first conferments took place on November 12, 2005, on the second anniversary of the terrorist attack at Nassiriyah, in which 19 Italian carabinieri, military and civilians and 9 Iraqi were killed. The crosses went to the families of the Italian victims of the attack.

The cross, 40 mm of diameter and surrounded by a laurel wreath, follows the pattern of the Italian commemorative crosses, but is gold plated instead of silver. The obverse of the central shield bears the Latin inscription "PRO HUMANITATE" (for mankind); on the reverse there is a five-pointed star for the military, or letters "R.I." ("Repubblica Italiana") for civilians. The 37 mm wide ribbon is light blue, with a stripe in the Italian national tricolor down the center. When awarded to a military, a gilt five-poited star is attached to the ribbon bar. It is not known if family members of the deceased are authorized to wear the cross, but judging from the fact that during the awarding ceremony the crosses were pinned rather than handed, it is very likely.

Unfortunately there are practically no images of the cross on the Net. This is all I was able to find:

A photo from the awarding ceremony:

Ribbon bar:

And the reverse:

And for comparison: another example of the enameled type (can you see the difference between this and Doc's medal?).

Lukasz

And reverse:

Hello Doc, hello All,

I haven't been posting for a couple of days. As promised, here is a photo of the non-enameled type of the Air Force Medal. Enjoy!

Obverse:

Tats?chlich, it looks like it is the same rack! The upper right corner is very much convincing indeed. Congratulations then!

Still, it doesn't tell if the ribbons are genuine; only the EKII looks pretty old, the rest seem quite new. But maybe it's just the photo...

J?rg Nimmergut's address from his website (http://www.joerg-nimmergut.de/html/kontakt.html):

Zentralstelle f?r wissenschaftliche Ordenskunde - ZwO

J?rg Nimmergut ? Eversbuschstra?e 108 ? D-80999 M?nchen

Telefon ++ 49 (0) 89 8 12 29 63 ? Fax ++ 49 (0) 89 8 13 15 41

Email: joerg.nimmergut@t-online.de

Lukasz

This is what Wiki says abut Gen. Petraeus career:

During 2001-02, as a brigadier general, Petraeus served a ten-month tour in Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of Operation Joint Forge. In Bosnia, he was the NATO Stabilization Force Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations as well as the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Joint Interagency Counter-Terrorism Task Force, a command created after the September 11 attacks to add a counterterrorism capability to the U.S. forces in Bosnia.

The Joint Forge operation was part SFOR/KFOR in the former Yugoslavia. As France was also participated in SFOR/KFOR, the General may have received the French medal just then. Notice that he is wearing the "Ex-Yugoslavia" ribbon of the NATO Medal next to it.

General Petraeus ribbon rack I made:

I see Ed's thread on Afghanistan. Seen anything on Iraq yet?

Here is then-Brig. Gen. Edward Gruszka, former deputy commander of MND-CS (and now a major general commanding MND-CS). I would guess that the red-white-black ribbon is Iraqi. No idea what medal it represents.

This is the Multinational Division Central-South Commemorative Medal:

More here:

http://www.medals.lava.pl/pl/pl4b3.htm#mmndcs

US General David Petraeus has appeared in official snaps wearing a mystery (Iraqi?) ribbon. He has just taken over as commander of the multinational force in Iraq.

To me it looks like the French M?daille comm?morative Fran?aise. I am not sure if US military are authorized to wear Iraqi medals at all.

M?daille comm?morative Fran?aise:

(credit: France-phaleristique)

The ribbons I made:

Medal of Service:

Medal of Research:

Medal of Merit and Management:

And finally the Medal of Merit and Management:

The female type of the above (they certainly do appreciate young female Iranian scientists!):

The Medal of Research:

Ed, you just beat me to that! And here is the result of my efforts:

The Medal of Service 1st Degree for Mr. Reza Aghazadeh (left, no close-up of the medal, I'm afraid ):

BTW: don't they ever wear ties?

lets' try to upload this photo:

Urrgh! The size is to big! Can anyone help me here?

I'll try to help: try to reduce the size of the photo. You can use any non-vector graphics software (Gimp, Paint Shop Pro, etc). You can even use the old good Microsoft Paint, which you should have on your PC with the operating system. Just open the photo in MS Paint, select Stretch/Skew in the Image menu, reduce both the width and height (to 80% or 50% - try it out) and save the photo in the JPG format. For me the maximum size of a file to upload is 110 kB (which is not much indeed), but you can have more, as you have many more posts. Important: first make a copy of your photo and experiment on it ONLY, or you will not be able to restore the original quality of the file!

Good luck!

Lukasz