NavyFCO

I've had a couple thousand uniforms over the past 20 years, so here's my opinion... You CAN take it to the cleaners. IF the cleaners are competent and know what they're doing. Since this is as thin of material as it is, I would probably tend to stay away from doing that, depending on the level of dirt on it. Vaccuuming works wonders, as does a common lint roller. You can clean surface spots with a damp cloth and bit of woolite. As far as ironing, my favorite way is with an upright steamer. They are not too expensive, so they are a decent investment. Otherwise, what works well is a standard iron and a damp cloth. Cover the area to be ironed with the damp cloth, and then use the steam made from the dampness of the cloth meeting the heat of the iron to press out any wrinkles. This is also a good way to get rid of the "surface" dirt that collects around button holes and in folds, particularly with the older (Russian Civil War) uniforms that I normally deal with. For ironing the arms and collar, roll up a towel and use that instead of the ironing board to back the material so you don't end up with creases from ironing. Some folks claim that putting the uniform in the bathroom while taking a hot shower will get all the wrinkles out. From my experience, unless your shower lasts no less than around 2 hours, you're pretty much wasting your time with that method. Hope that helps. Dave

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The shadow as pointed out by my arrow in the below photo. I've personally never seen a good ORB with a shadow like this around the hammer and sickle... Dave

Not all that perfect a fake, and still has that "shadow" around the hammer and sickle. By itself, a critical collector could easily spot it as a fake. HOWEVER, if I had seen one of these in a group, I probably would have bought it as part of the group and never questioned it's originality. Scary!!!!! Dave

Unfortunately, the dear Ensign wasn't an Academy grad, so it's tough to find out anything about him. If he made it to O-6 or above, you could try the operational archives at the Navy Archives in Washington DC to see if they have his bio. As for ADM Harry Donald Felt, he was USNA 1923, earned the Navy Cross, Distinguished Service Cross (Army) Legion of Merit, and Distinguished Flying Cross during the course of his career that went to 1 July 1964 when he retired. He passed away in Virginia Beach, VA 25 February 1992. Dave

But at the same time, we haven't seen every kind of uniform that was made, either. If only 50 people bought these awards and used the award loops out of a possible... what... 75 million uniforms, what's the chance that one of the 20 or 30 of us have seen one? Not likely! Russian generals frequently sewed loops on their VP uniforms in order to slide the pin of their medal bar into, so why wouldn't others sew loops for their screwback awards? Loops are a lot easier than making a permanent gaping hole in the uniform, and are easier than making the wierd backing things that a lot of guys made for their awards (see Andrew's photo.) If someone was stationed in E. Germany, there were plenty of tailors that could put on loops in minutes for very little cost, since it was so common in the German army. Now I also like Andrew's idea of it being a foreign manufactured variant of the 1985 OGPW, since they look to date from about the same time period. I think that's a possibility, but I am personally a little surprised that the Mint would allow that to have happened. On another note... Andrew, do you have the name of the officer in your photo? He looks VERY familiar - has his group been offered for sale before??? Dave

I took another look at the one on eBay and it is clearly different than the one MONDVOR had. Which means that these were somewhat regularly made and more exist. Here's my theory: Place: Divided Germany, Soviet sector. Time: Approx 10 years immediate post-WW2. Situation: Number 1 - Unemployed German jewelers. Number 2 - Soviet soldiers and officers tired of sticking screws through their uniforms (as you can see from photos). Fast forward to now include enterprizing German jewelers... "Hmmm... Franz, if we make Soviet awards with pins on the reverse like we used to make awards for our army, the Soviets would buy them." So, the jewlers make up a batch of awards, and the Soviet officers/soldiers buy them. Final outcome: German jewelers that can put food on the table and Soviet soldiers without big holes in their uniform! I'd bet money that's where they came from. Dave

That's really odd... Maybe made for a theater or movie? The quality seems too good for that though... A while back on another forum a guy posted a Red Star that was made by the German intelligence to use as an award to be worn by a German in Soviet uniform... Perhaps this was something like that? Though if it was, I'd imagine they'd put a screwback on it, as it would seem like a big difference being a pinback. Just a few random thoughts... :-) Dave

I think I mentioned it somewhere in the thread, but he was a fighter pilot. (See my July 4th post.) As far as his awards, I figure that the later of the 2 Red Stars is a 30 December 1956 long service award, the earlier of the Red Stars is a 18 December 1956 award - perhaps for Hungary. The third Red Banner actually appears to have been awarded earlier in 1956 though, so I don't know that that one would be for, considering that it was issued before his long service Red Star! I have more scans of the group at home... I can post them up this weekend. Dave

And the reverse... Note that the two wartime ones were converted to screwback then unconverted later.

Sure thing!

Book update... I'm at 160 pages right now, and rapidly growing. I estimate that the book will be about 250 or so when complete. If I get it bound the same way I did my thesis (as a paperback) it should run around $30 a copy or so. I'm actually finding it to be quite interesting! Dave

That is, if they weren't sold already. Dave

Here's a photo of the whole group... What a beauty! Real fighter pilot groups are super tough to come by!

Here's a photo of the whole group....

And since we all like to see who were are talking about, here's a nice photo of our dashing gentleman...

But, he was given credit for the two campaigns by his unit in 1946. I assume he used these documents to show entitlement to the medals instead of the "official" ones.

Well, at least the Cyrillic side of this one is filled out with the recipient's name. Interestingly, the name of the Mayor (I think that's who it is) seems to be different in each one... Perhaps the Russian shortening of his name? Now, even more interesting is that he wasn't given "official" credit for fighting in Budapest (or in Vienna for that matter). No medal cards, but the medal did come with the group, and the group appears to be completely original. Here's the listing of what he earned from his ID book...