JBFloyd

1. 2600th National Anniversary Commemorative Medal 2. Showa Enthronement Commemorative Medal 3. Order of the Sacred Treasure, eighth class

The "V" is worn on the medal ribbon and ribbon bar, much like an MID device. No US decorations have post-nominal letters for common usage.

The ribbon set is from the 1950s at the earliest: Navy Good Conduct Medal, with 2 stars; American Defense Service Medal (pre-7 Dec 1941 service); American Campaign; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign; WWII VIctory; National Defense Service Medal. The National Defense Service Medal came in during the Korean War. so the ribbons are no earlier than that. The Surface Warfare badge is a much later addition to the Navy's inventory of badges, I think. I can't help on value. Jeff Floyd

Timing of awards to allies can vary significantly. I've seen cases where the award came first and all the administrivia came afterwards (i.e., the general handed out the medal and the captains got to take care of the paperwork). Generally, the process would take 3-4 months as paperwork slowly moved through the system. In WWII, 8th Air Force would cut general orders semi-annually with all the allied awards. I have one GO with a mix of British, Polish, Czech, Dutch and Norwegian recipients of DFCs and Air Medals. The definition of meritorious service is left open, but generally you'll find the recipients to be staff officers and field commanders who worked closely with their US counterparts. The recommendation would come from the part of the US chain of command nearest the recipient. Since the final award orders will come out of the senior headquarters, it's often hard to tell where they originated. Recommendations will come in from a variety of sources but, in theory, the recommendation starts with someone with direct knowledge and observation of the service/gallantry. A gallantry award (for Army and Air Force awards) will carry a "V" device. The Navy and Marine Corps use the "V" as a "combat distinguishing device", meaning the action/service took place in a combat zone, but may not have involved gallantry on the part of the recipient. The situation Chris refers to is not uncommon when awards are spread among allies. Often a package of awards will be passed along to the allied command with the request that they be distributed appropriately and the recipients' names be reported back to the US headquarters. This has allowed the allied commander some discretion in adding some variety to his own award system. British commanders in WWII often used these packages to reward folks who would not have received a British award for their service. I have a group in my collection with a British DFM to an American bomber crewman. He had a DFC and several Air Medals for flying missions out of Italy, but there is nothing in his record which would make him stand out for a DFM award. While it "came up with the rations", it's a named medal, so someone went trough the process of identying this crewman to the British and tracking him until the award was actually made.

"Incomplete Secondary School"??? No roof? Too few teachers?? No supplies? Maybe a better-earned award than would be obvious. Jeff Floyd

While the DoD manual is certainly going to be followed in spirit, I doubt that the letter will be followed too closely in a case like this. The senior State Department rep on scene will get a courtesy copy, as will the senior DIA rep, but it's unlikely in this case that anyone will ask the US Ambassador to the UK (or to Iraq, for that matter) for approval (they are most likely addressees on the State/DIA message, at best). If the recipient is from the Peoples Republic of Lower Slobovia, then you get to different levels of annoyance, with lots more people involved (so that blame can be distributed evenly when things go badly). Jeff Floyd

I think you will find that most of these will be meritorious service awards (although Corporal Bond, RTR, probably received a British gallantry award of some kind). Usually, such awards are recommended through the US personnel system to the senior command in the area. This might be at the initiative of lower commanders or in response to a request for consideration of awards to allies. Once the list is compiled, it will be staffed through the senior American and British commands with award authority. In this case, because the awards are Bronze Stars, the award authority was probably the senior British officer in Iraq. Some higher awards would be staffed through the Pentagon and Whitehall. Once British approval was obtained, the US side of the process would continue and the award packages would be prepared in detail. In some cases, this would mean a staffer would have to write a complete citation or polish up what was originally submitted with the recommendation. The package would include the decoration, an award certificate, an award citation, copies of the orders making the award, and any necessary forwarding letters to the appropriate British commander. The paperwork will normally be in a folder with the US Army seal on the cover. Awards will generally be made by the senior US officer available (often with great show). If the recipient is not available, the package will be sent on to his command for presentation as appropriate. Jeff Floyd

I think you've just posted more information and photos than exist in any single Enlish-language publication. I don't think I've ever seen the lower grades. Thanks, Jeff Floyd

The Bronze Star can be awarded for meritorious service in a combat zone or for gallantry not meriting a higher award. The Silver Star is a combat gallantry award. As Ed mentions, the Bronze Star is easily given (as it was meant to be from the beginning). Most of the Bronze Stars will fall into the first category (especially to officers), i.e., roughly equivalent to an MBE. ORs tend to get the gallantry award. Awards to allies have always been problematic. In WWII, Korea and Vietnam, there was a flow of American awards to Commonwealth forces, usually to those who were in a US chain of command (but not always). British awards to Americans tend to follow the same pattern. There are political aspects to both giving and receiving allied awards, and those usually supersede any evaluation of merit/gallantry. The greatest difficulty in comparing awards in situations like this is that US and British awards system are based on very different views of awards. The US system is much more flexible (good and bad) and attuned to many awards for service rather than gallantry; where the British system is less flexible and geared mostly toward gallantry awards. It makes no great sense to denigrate the award of a Bronze Star if you do not understand that it was created to recognize sustained combat service and was meant to be liberally awarded. Jeff Floyd

I'll spare you the rant about the stupidity of US laws on the sale of Medals of Honor. Even with the repairs and minor modifications, this looks like a nice one and estimated quite cheaply. Jeff Floyd

It's from the Communist period (1946-1990). This one was established in 1950. you'll also see these on plain blue bow-mounts. It comes in three classes. Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was selected to be Prince of Bulgaria in 1887. Ferdinand declared himself Tsar of the Kingdom of Bulgaria in 1909. Jeff Floyd

Bulgarian Motherhood Order, second class. There are more Bulgarian medals than Bulgarian medal collectors, but the Kingdom material is starting to pick up again. A lot of quality Bulgarian material seems to be going home again, rather like Imperial Russian.

The red and white rosette is for "Special Member" or is the first type "Honorary Member" badge. THe second type "Honorary Member" badge is orange and white. The rosette for "Advisor" is purple/white/red/white. Blue and white rosettes were used by branch and chapter officials. For anyone with an interest in non-governmental Japanese badges (fire, police, veteran, patriotic groups and Red Cross), I'd strongly suggest getting a copy of "In the Name of a Living God", by Paul Murphy and Steve Ackley. Steve can be reached at aunltd@aol.com. (Unfortunately, I do not get a commission)

Abbott & Tamplin indicate 1425 Military Cross awards to French officers in WWI. I suspect that nowhere that many survive as parts of groups, having been stripped off an unnamed group for sale as a single decoration. Jeff Floyd

It's difficult to track exact numbers awarded, but in 1947 the Army reported that in WWII the Legion of Merit had been awarded 20,273 times to US Army personnel (except for a very small number of early awards, those would have all been Legionnaire grade awards). Allies received awards in the following numbers: Chief Commander - 31 awards Commander - 415 awards Officer - 918 awards Legionnaire - 339 awards These numbers are not exact, but are what the Army reported to itself after the war. There were numerous awards made by overseas commands that never appeared in War Department orders. The LoM was used very aggressively to cement relations with neutral countries as well as allies in WWII (Chile got 18 awards; Ecuador got 8; Guatemala got 5; Mexico got 22; the British Empire got 900 awards). The LoM was created as an all-ranks award and, while Roosevelt was alive, it remained so. In WWII, privates in the US Army received the award 118 times. After 1945, it very quickly evolved into a colonel/general's Good Conduct Medal and only relatively recently have senior NCOs received it again. One other anomoly stands out to confuse everything. Gen Joseph Stilwell was awarded the Chief Commander grade (contrary to regulations) because the US government wanted Chiang Kai-Shek to get the Chief Commander and Chiang would not accept it unless Stilwell received one as well. So, it was done. Jeff Floyd

While I share Mr Bean's interest in the item (liking multi-national groups), I suspect that most medal collectors will not. For whatever reasons, they will shy away from such pieces -- rather like British medals made into menu holders. It certainly appears to be a genuine MC and not put together yesterday for the collector's market. How much is a "go with" item like this worth?