Ed_Haynes

To my experiemnce, these are really more uncommon than they perhaps ought to be, and the certificates are near to rare. Do I read the market right? Ed

Rick . . . what is that knock at the door? . . . and the jack-boots coming up the stairs? . . . Rick? . . . Rick??

Lovely stuff!! Ed

He is shown wearing it in the late-issue 1941 award booket for his 1919 Red Banner For more, see: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2326

And, to complete the images, Vatslav Bronislavovich Lavrinovich's medal, #15126. No document with this one, though.

Start with http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/medals/iraq/iraq.html though, due to some pretty serious information theft I have intentionally not been updating it! I have much more information and specimens now, though my medal sources have dried up after the invasion, as they lived in a part of Baghdad that got hammered; I have heard nothing since Gulf War III was launched. Ed

Thanks for this, Chris. Not sure my language skills are up to the challenge, but the topic is a fine one! Ed

I, for one, would be interested in seeing the medals. As the booty comes back, some interesting things are turning up. Ed

Dunno, don't have "the book". In fact, I have never seen any book that did much with Mongolian awards. (I am told that the OMSA may have something in gestation??) Megan's site has some things, but not a great deal http://www.medals.org.uk/mongolia/mongolia.htm Ed

Everyone confirms my suspicions. Thanks. The good news is that the price I had to pay was quite reasonable, essentially the "sum of the parts". Ed

This is the new Op Parakram Medal (shown below), established in 2005 for the near-war between India and Pakistan 2001/2. This is a controversial medal, as it is a campaign medal (not a clasp to an existing general service medal) for not a "war", but for a deployment. The extremely naughty Air Chief Marshal is, however, wearing the OP Parakram ribbon BACKWARDS. He needs to "have a word" with his military tailor. But, then, I doubt the Germans would notice. He is also wearing a commendation badge below his ribbons, most likely a Chief of the Air Staff Commendation Badge. Nice snap, Dave!

I think I have a photo somewhere, let me look.

And the legislation now proposed http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/ge...h3352ih.txt.pdf makes this look kindergarten by comparison. Ed

Skinner's went to India, see: http://www.regiments.org/regiments/southasia/cav/1903-03.htm http://www.regiments.org/regiments/southasia/cav/1921-01.htm But you probably won't get much out of the regiments. They do have a museum, but it is totally off-limits to normal humans, Indian or foreign. They will answer no queries, as a violation of security restrictions. Coaker, per Jan 1919 IAL: Major Verne Arthur Coaker, Indian Unattached List (3rd Horse) 4 Jan 1878 born 22 Jan 1898 commissioned 30 March 1899 appointed to the Indian Army 1 Sep 1915 promoted to major 1 June 1917 appointed Remount Purchasing Officer, Baluchistan and Sind 1 Oct 1918 appointed a squadron commander in 3rd Horse but on detached duty (remount) Qualified at a school of musketry Passed course of transport instruction Qualified Hindi (obligatory) Will check regimental histories etc. Amazed your researcher could find nothing. But some just don't care. Had I later IALs I could do MUCH better for you! Have you tried a quick search in the online London Gazette? Ed

I know it was awarded to SCW veterans, but I have always found that award IMMENSELY confusing. Someone needs to sort it out ... hint, hint ...?

I assume this applies to the international volunteers on the republican, democratic, non-fascist side? There were, of course, French (and other) volunteers on both sides.

The OMSA (good for them) have finally taken a stand on this dangerous piece of lunatic legislation. See: http://www.omsa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=446 http://www.omsa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=447 http://www.omsa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=449 FYI and action?

Thanks again, Eric. I love learning about the exotic and you can hardly beat Albania! Nice eye-candy with a tangy coating of history.

OK, the Coast Guard 9 Year medal too:

And, you think this is bad, just ponder the Garaj Star ribbon (on one of the police ribbon bars I show above - very uncommon!) of that for the newly-issued Coast Guard 20 Year Service Medal (they have one for 9 years too).

Ribbon bar 2 (1) Trishakti Patta ?? Class, Order of the Gurkha Right Arm ?? Class, Coronation Medal of King Birendra 1972 (2) Jubilee of King Birendra 1997, ???, Coronation of King Gyanendra 2002, Paradesa Seva Padak / Foreign Service Medal with khukhri device (3) Sainik Dirgha Seva Patta / Military Long Service Medal, Sainik Seva Padak / Military Service Medal, UN: United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) 1978? with "2" device, UN: United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), 1992-95

Ribbon bar 1 (1) Order of the Gurkha Right Arm ?? Class, Trishakti Patta ?? Class (2) Jubilee of King Bhirendra 1997, ???, Coronation of King Gyanendra 2002 (3) Paradesa Seva Padak / Foreign Service Medal with khukhri device, Sainik Dirgha Seva Patta / Military Long Service Medal, Sainik Seva Padak / Military Service Medal, Prasiddha Seva Padak / ??? Service Medal (4) SARC Service Medal, Earthquake Relief Medal 1988 with "Om" device, UN: United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) 1993-96, UN: United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) 1978? with "2" device

The medals range from the nicely made (note no "very" here) to the very crudely cast/struck with the suspensions even worse. The problem lies in the fact that no real medals are "awarded" except for the truly high and exotic things, and you just scamper down to your local military tailor (in Kathmandu that'd be a "cap shop") and buy a pre-mounted group of your medals (assuming it is just normal stuff). If you get something else, you take the first group back and swap it for one including your new medal, paying a rather token price for the upgrade. Some individual medals are well made, some poorly so, and if you want the shop owner to hate you, you can force him to rip apart pre-mounted bars of dig through his stock boxes to find nicely made medals, otherwise you get what you get. As no medals in Nepal are named (same for Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka), no one cares. As is often the case in Europe, these are just open-market purchases, with all the variability in quality that that suggests. The same shops sell ribbon bars too. (See below.)

Nice, Eric! Thanks for sharing the eye-candy. Ed

Hi David, The High Altitude Medal is one of those awards that had its ribbon designed by a committee of "experts" who never dealt with the pragmatic question of how or whether the ribbon could actually be produced, or produced economically (for a medal that more members of at least the army and air force would qualify for at some time in their careers). Apparently, this chevron ribbon seemed a sexy and evocative design on paper and no one thought about the realities until later. Early awards came on a thick plastic ribbon where the blue "chevrons" seem to be embossed or painted on (see the image below). This ribbon, I am told this proved to be expensive and cumbersome (thicker than a "normal" ribbon and therefore hard to mount, c.f. the Vayu Sema Medal ribbon which all the military tailors hate). They were back to the nasty plasticised paper "ribbons" for the High Altitude Medal that we know and hate so well. Though note Khanna's (?) ribbon bar, above, that uses the plastic rather than paper ribbon. When it comes to post-1947 Indian medals I could go on and on and on. Ed