Ed_Haynes

Having called together the "mob", I have but so far just one datapoint to contribute, but, maybe, an interesting one.

Polar Star type 3.1, #1217. Documented, awarded 3 December 1955.

Same recycling from the Medal for Combat/Military Merit but this is showing the last two characters from the second line of text.

N 09 -- The Outstanding Construction Worker

S 33 -- The Prize-Winner of the Mongolian Journalists' Union

K 21, K 22, and K 23 -- The Glory of Labor, gold, silver, and bronze

Fantastic! Thanks, Christophe!!

See, please, the main thread on police badges. I do not have the power to merge threads, sorry.

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=10182

B NIB 04 -- 24th Conference of the MPRP

B 41 -- Sukhbaatar and Choibalsan

I 09 -- The Honorary Badge of the Soviet-Mongolian Friendhship Society

Has a very "East German" feel to it.

I 08 -- The Honorary Badge of the Soviet-Mongolian Friendhship Society

F 16 -- Dog Trainer, 3rd class

Not quite what Battushig shows (he shows the 2nd class), but close enough?

J 35 -- The Outstanding Worker of the Agriculture and Food Industry

At least our old friends the "snouts" persist as a part of the design, but, oh, how they've changed.

X 21 -- 50 Years of the Trade Union

Amazingly, the ribbon here is actually ribbon (cloth)!!

N 13 -- The Construction Army

N 14 The Special Committee of the Military Construction Unit

Y 01 -- Honorary Badge of the Women's Organization

Thanks for this!! Just dictionary work tells us something!

Congratuilations! Sometimes reunification has to win out over common sense and the rationality of the market. Some things we just HAVE to do as a duty to history!

This is why INTENSIVE research is called for, more than is usual. So much seems to "feel" good that the oddities need to be resolved.

All of us await research returns.

1- The rank GNR = Gunner.

2- The ribbon is wrong wrong wrong. See: http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/india/medals/PaS71.html (let me know if you need some)

3- What else you want to know? To quote (adapted) from a forthcoming book:

Awarded for combat service in the western theatre during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani conflict.

Established: By No.3-Pres./73 of 17 January 1973. Amended by No. 46 Pres./73 of 12 Sep 1973 and No. 69-Pres./81 of 17 Nov 1981.

General Appearance: A five-pointed 40-mm bright bronze star. Recently, six-pointed tailors? copies of this star have been noted; these are completely unofficial contrivances.

Obverse: In the domed circular centre, the State emblem and motto with a 2 mm wide surrounding band containing the legend ?PASCHIMI STAR".

Reverse: The naming details are impressed in the centre of the plain reverse.

Ribbon: 31 mm, medium pink (officially described as ?clarot? [sic, claret]) with three 2 mm white central stripes.

Suspension: Suspended by a ring.

Naming: Usually named on the reverse.

Miniature: Miniatures have been issued.

Background: Awarded to all ranks of the Indian armed forces, various police forces, and civilians employed in support of the armed forces during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani conflict. The Paschimi Star was awarded to those who served in the western theatre of war for one day in a specified battle zone (in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and the Arabian Sea between 3 December and 16 December 1971) or for ten days in a specified qualifying area (25 March 1971-25 March 1972 in particular areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and specified airfields and ports), or who carried out one operational sortie or three flying hours in the zones and periods specified. In 1981 eligibility of the award was extended to include personnel of India?s official intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), as well as organisations under the Directorate General of Security, such as the SSB, ARC and SFF.

This star could not be awarded alone and recipients were also awarded the Sangram Medal.

The Pahlavi Iranian order is, as has been mentioned already, the Nishan-i-Liaqat/Order of Merit. It was a three-class order to recognise peacetime military services. This is a first class badge (with some improvisation on the ribbon device). And, yes, the group sees to be saying "military attache"; it should be easy enough to check the diplomatic lists to see who served as French military attache in Tehran and at least get a short list.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

Well, it is here. John Hayward, Diana Birch, and Richard Bishop, British Battles and Medals, 7th ed. (London: Spink, 2006; ISBN 1-902040-77-5). All 798 pages of it. At least it is not like the last edition, requiring major structural remodeling of your working and living area in order to use.

This one is "only" 7-3/4" x 10-3/4" and 2" thick. It is cloth bound without a dust-jacket. While dust jackets don't survive, I worry for the cloth and that lovely Waterloo Medal reverse on the front cover after a few years of heavy use. Pretty as it is (and heavy as it is), I'm tempted to take it off for rebinding in leather in New Delhi.

Inside: full-coated paper with the sorty of smell a book ought to have. All black-and-white (except the ribbon chart (which is a fold-out at the end). Medal images, many familiar, supplemented with images of clasps and (interesting!) images of naming styles.

Now let me read and congeal my second imperssions. You do so too, please!

Dave is, of course, right as to the sourcing for these Syrian medals. They come to market through Lebanon.

Nice to see some attention to these awards. Arab awards are usually met -- on this forum and elsewhere -- with not much more than snarling derision.

Thanks!

Thanks. Have been playing with a sory of "key" to these badges (how good it is to be done with classes and exams!) and am now up to 46 pages. Will send (BIG) PDF to any who are interested, though still much a work in progress.

Yes, quite a rant indeed. Such a rant in the US would gain you a vacation at Guantanamo Bay.

May we now, please, get back on topic?