NavyFCO

My humble contribution to the thread, a nice cased Glory 3rd from my collection. Dave

There are a couple "classic" bad groups on eBay currently. These are groups that have the bad order books that started coming out of Russia in the mid- to late 90s. Basically, someone would take an order book with one or two awards entered, and then enter in a bunch of other awards. Normally the awards would be good, but the group overall would be 100% bad. Back in "the day" this was a good way to pick up awards for under market value as a lot of people wouldn't touch the group, but if you wanted to split it up there was quite a bit of money in the awards themselves. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure... http://cgi.ebay.com/Collection-of-Soviet-O...goryZ10954QQrdZ 1QQcmdZViewItem Buyer beware! Dave

No. Never seen one before. The reason for this is because that case isn't a real Soviet case. Someone simply added that to the medal. That tassle "thingie" would never have been found on a real Soviet case! Dave

Guys: Thanks so much so far for your help! I've e-mailed the curator at the RMC Museum in Canada and am on to tracking down some others. Keep it coming! Dave

All: I'm trying to track down some award groups to British generals from WW2. I am certain that some of them have to be in museums somewhere! Part of the task is also figuring out who some of these guys are (those marked with "?") Some are instantly recognizable, others are unknown to me. Any help is appreciated! Thanks! Dave Here's the list, almost all containing just last names, and the spelling may or may not be right as they were phonetically transliterated: Alexander (Field Marshal) U. M. Biverbruck (?) A. Bruck (?) A. Harris O. Littleton (?) B. L. Montgomery D. Tovey (?) B. Freizer (?) T. L. Mallory G. D. Krirar (from Canada) (?)

Does anyone out there own, or know who owns, the medals to Major General Terry Allen of ETO fame? They were sold by www.wartimecollectables.com a few years back. I don't even need to correspond with the owner, I just need to get a serial number off one of the foreign awards for my research. Any leads would be appreciated! Dave

And the reverse...

Ask and thou shalt receive... Here's a close up of the front...

That's almost freaky... why would he write it down... and why in his order book? I almost wonder if he had a mental issue of some sort. I worked (until recently when he passed away) for a retired admiral who had a stroke and some other issues. His only outlet was to write, though most of it was odd stuff, kind of like this. Very strange... Dave

Beautiful badge! I can't read the citation, but I do know you can't list that on eBay! (Just read the lettering on it, you'd be banned forever!) Seriously, absolutely beautiful badge - I think this is one of my new favorites! Dave

So, if you REALLY want to collect ribbons (and medals for that matter) you join the reserves as an enlisted person. You'll get the USAF Good Conduct, USAF Longevity and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal after 10 years of service in the Reserves (or quicker if you get mobilized.) Today, if you were to join the USAF Reserve as an enlisted person and get yourself mobilized, and literally not even have to leave your hometown (if you lived around a base), after four years you would have: USAF Good Conduct National Defense Service Medal GWOT Service Medal Longevity Service Award Armed Forces Reserve Medal with "M" device Air Force Training Ribbon Do equal time (three years) on Reserve duty and qualify for the Air Reserve Meritorious Service Medal as well. So, a total of six ribbons (four medals!) for having a pulse, putting out as little effort as possible and never getting in trouble. Not a bad deal! Dave

And the reverse...

Although this isn't "imperial" technically, those on this forum may well have better appreciation for it than lumping it in with the general "international" militaria section, and it fits better in here than in the Communist section. This is the command flag of the White Northwestern Front, specifically for the troops under the command of Colonel Prince Pavel Bermondt-Avalov. Prince Bermondt-Avalov was classified as an "adventurer" who fought both in the south and in the north on the side of the Whites during the Civil War. His forces counted a reported 50,000 men in their ranks. However, the majority of his officers and many of the men were German Freikorps actually under the direction of German General Count Rudiger von der Goltz. Bermondt-Avalov was most famed for his flamboyant and outrageous behavior both as a supposed representative of General Denekin with the forces of Ataman Skoropadsky in the Ukraine, and then after the fall of the latter and a trip into Germany assembling forces, he reappeared in the Baltic and joined the Northwestern Front under General Iudenich. The most famous operation of Bermondt-Avalov's forces was the sacking of Riga, Latvia and the reign of terror that ensued until they were defeated and thrown out of the city on November 10, 1919. That effectively ended the White military command of Prince Bermondt-Avalov as his force ceased to exist. This is one of the "crown jewels" of my collection. Thanks for letting me share it with you! Dave

These actually didn't sell on eBay. My reserve was $700, and no one would buy the group, which included all his jubilee medals and...by the way...he was also KGB! Mind you, I sold this group two years ago. How ironic it is that it would bring well over 200% what I was asking now! Dave

You just have to think of what it must have been like for him the first few months of the War, strutting around as a Junior Lt. with a Red Banner on his chest. He must have been THAT GUY that folks referred to when they said: "Oh yeah... He's a war hero." It was a pretty rare sight back in that day to see anyone with an award, but a junior officer? WOW! Neat group, and I'm glad that it researched out. Dave

I've got Volume 1, but it looks like I need to go buy Volume 2 now. Volume 1 was a good book with great photos of stuff. I'll buy Vol 2 when I can find it at a reasonable price. Dave

Now that's an impressive badge!!!!

From the prices that I've seen these early Republican Red Banners sell for, I think you could be safe in saying that this single badge may well be worth more than the entire rest of the group... COMBINED. Dave

Rick- A friend of mine has almost exactly the same bar, and it's, well..... This fellow doesn't have any identifyable campaign awards, which means that he bailed pre-9/11 (or at least not long enough to wear the GWOTSM) and didn't go overseas for Bosnia (etc.) the Gulf War 1 or anything else in the Gulf that took place. I'm not Air Force, but I'm guessing this fellow did a 4 year committment and then bailed afterwards, given his single Good Conduct award. I don't know when the USAF starts their NCO PME, but I'm guessing he was an E-5 or so. Also, the USAF Achievement Medal is normally pretty "vanilla" in the whole scheme of personal awards. I'd say of Achievement Medals that may be interesting starts with the Marine Corps (they get a Navy one, but they're seriously skimpy on awards) the Navy, the Army then the Air Force. One of my guys got an Air Force Achievement Medal for a ten-day internship with an Air Force unit (he helped them with a goodwill event out of state... ooooh!) and yet I spent two years owning $250m. worth of equipment, 23 people and served as the Air Warfare Commander for a carrier battlegroup in a combat zone to get a single Navy Achievement one. Go figure... Dave

And did you notice that the signer of the VM card was also the signer for the For Valor citation? Colonel Radko himself! Dave

This one was actually researched by my researcher then sold to me, so I don't know exactly how he did it. However, I assume he simply researched the name through the archives, or perhaps got a general time period for the Ukaz (it was in October 1957) and went from there. I'm currently having another unnumbered Valor medal that's just a book and medal combination, and an unnumbered Military Merit medal that's the senior medal in a group to an admiral (impressive career!) researched, so we'll see how those turn out. Dave

And finally, his Victory Over Germany medal book:

Next page:

Here's the front page of his medal book: