Paul R

These are some great and uncommon photos. I like the Austrian war hero the best!

I am sure that they will want to see some closeups of the bar before wanting to vouch for authenticity. The order of precedence seems odd to me.

Ed, Are there new medals introduced?

Eddie, So in other words, they were given the same privileges as officers, right?

This man was a real hero!! Thank you for sharing this!

Those are some great bars, Scott! I love the Lippe/Prussian Cross duo!

Bissell's story is amazing!! He was lucky he was not strung up before Gen Washington could vouch for him. Did these men get any sort of pension or prolonged benefit from receiving this award? Thank you all for answering my questions and for starting this awesome thread. You guys have some real treasures!

I am confused now... there were more than three?

Thanks for the detailed information and colored images, Taz! Any rumors as to who made them? These are definitely National Treasures. I bet that the Smithsonian would pay big bucks to get one of these! I wonder why Bissell is left out of the painting? What did he do to get his award?

I cannot believe that I have missed this thread for so long. Your collection of KM is one of the most amazing I have seen! I am shocked! Is that RK original? I especially enjoy the uniforms! Have you ever seen a Medical Enlisted Colani?

Amazing!! I wonder who has it now? I would love to see it in color. A little to moth eaten for my taste though! (LOL sarcastic joke).

WOW!! That would be great! Of course I trust you. The unibomber has been caught already! lol :lol:

Thanks for your research, Bernhard! I really appreciate the time you placed into it. Were there any other facts or details on the organizations what someone might find interesting? Paul

I am not a visor collector, but I like that one! Thanks for sharing Jan.

Are any of the three original Purple Hearts awarded by George Washington "For Merit" still around?

Very nice collection of FP boards Roman. Do you collect LW Beamte as well?

Dan, That is a great story!! Thank you for sharing it! Paul

So this is YOUR medal?

Hopefully some images will be published? It would be great to see some of the displays!

Hi Rob, Thanks for sharing this beautful buckle! It looks 100% unissued!

I would not say the Commendation Medal is not a hard medal to earn. I guess that this would depend upon the command or branch of service the member was with. I made Corpsman of the Year for my entire branch of service for various events and got an Achievement Medal(lower than a Commendation Medal). Many people I serve with do not know the names of the medals they have been awarded. The simply received the award, placed it on their medal bar, added a ribbon bar to rack, and never thought about it again. David is right... the medal itself is not worth more than 10 dollars, but if he is providing a copy of the citation... who knows. If what he says in his narrative is true(which I am leaning toward believing), I really feel for him. His pitch is more about finding a job than looking for a handout! It is a sad day when a vet has to contemplate selling his medals to feed his family. Here is the narrative: "I am selling my medals that I earned during Operation Iraqi Freedom 1 & 2. This is for my original Army Accommodation Medal with Valor awarded to me for valorous actions. Read on and I will tell you what I did to earn this medal but first let me explain my situation. During my tour I was wounded and received a purple heart. Now after 14 years of service i am being medically retired due to my injury. What this means to me is that now the Army has retired me and I am only getting 30% of what my pay was. This means that somehow I need to come up with a way to not lose my house my truck and other items that i own. I have sold allot of the things that I own such as toys i bought for myself (PS3, Motorcycles, Riding Gear, Etc..) but used it all just to keep up. A friend of mine recently helped me out allot but it only goes so far and were to that wall. Living the way I have to now just brings major stress to my life and is hard on my family. I have a wife and two children that depend on me to give them a good life. I did two tours in Iraq and missed allot of their birthdays and Christmas's serving my country. Having a steady job and income for 14 years and then going to having almost no income is very hard on a person. My credit is good just now my debt to income ratio has made it impossible for me to even get a loan to pull myself out. As for jobs, I have applied everywhere, I cant even get Wal-Mart to call me back being a veteran definitely doesn't help as much as they say it does when looking for work. I am limited in my work abilities but I am a workhorse and a fast learner. My job in the USMC(before I switched to the Army) and Army was Infantry Sniper. I just need help, I have worked very hard to get where I was and am now losing it all due to being hurt while serving in Iraq. I'm not looking for necessarily money but even a job would be great, as you can see I tried opening a eBay store here but I am only gaining pennies and not even close to what will help me. Personal Security? I am highly trained, professional and very good at what i do so if anybody needs a PSD(Personal security Detachment) then I am available. So heres how I earned my ARCOM with Valor. To make a long story short, while on a mission a Kiowa Helicopter was shot down and two pilots were stranded, Myself and my snipers(I was the Battalion Sniper Section Leader) made it to the pilots within 2 minutes after they were shot down, as soon as I got on scene I had to open fire on a enemy soldier who was attempting to shoot down another helicopter. He was 700 meters away and I scored a fatal hit, I took my 6 snipers and led them to an area where we took high ground and immediately engaged the enemy for 4 hours straight. Four almost 45 minutes there was a total of 42(My 6 snipers and the scouts 36 soldiers) of us taking on almost 1500 advancing enemy. After 45 minutes reinforcements finally arrived. We stopped the enemy by using precision fire and creative tactics. The final outcome my section had 61 confirmed kills that day and over 4 dozen unconfirmed (wounded enemy who crawled off and probably died later) I personally contributed with 15 kills and over 2 dozen unconfirmed kills from that day. The medal will come with a copy of the award orders which will verify all of this information. Also if you are a history and military channel junkie then you have seen the documentary made about this event. If not I will try and locate my copy and include a copy with the medal. No promises but I do my best to find the copy. Thank you everybody who read this far, and even if you don't help me, just one day help a veteran."

So what other things do you have? :jumping:

I look forward to seeing your Heeres Series, Larry!! I know that you have a lot of great stuff to share!

Only Enlisted members could qualify for the marksmanship lanyard. Nice group of items!

Very very nice! This nebenfarbe was shared by both branches!