NavyFCO

A friend of mine was selling this and even though I don't collect Soviet awards, I couldn't pass it up!  Auke is researching it for me...I look forward to finding out who it belonged to!

Enjoy!

Thanks for the comments. The sad thing is that I dread that someone might have tried to sell these as "real" groups at some point. I have never seen them for sale before, but I lost touch with the guy who bought them and as you know, stuff does get sold out onto the market. Here are a few more, as I enjoyed scanning big groups of medals. The Glories image is pretty big, so you can use it as a desktop background if you'd like.

Warning: These photos may make you feel sick. And perhaps slightly upset. I feel your pain...as they make me upset too. But, I am the one responsible for them because I did them.

You've been warned!

Back in the mid-90s (1995-1997 to be exact), a fellow collector really had a "thing" for Soviet generals and mounted medals. So, in trade for other militaria, and often giving me the money to buy the medals up front, I made these up for him. At the time, you must remember, Red Banners were selling for $20-$25 a piece, RBLs for $15-$20, Orders of Glory for $15, For Valor medals for $12-$15, Red Stars for $15-$20...sigh...those were the days!

The naval uniform was one I had on a coat form in my collecting room. Of course, all of the medals were 100% original. The table of medals was taken by my dad when I joined the Navy (1998). He inventoried them and sent them all to me. This was while he was inventorying them. Who knew any of these would be worth much a decade down the road???

So here are a few of my projects that I made for him. I WISH I had all of these now...who knows what research would show about these medals now???????

I know this is an ancient thread, but I've had this shoulder board since 2005, when it was given to me by one of my enlisted Marines. He had gotten it from a friend of his who was killed in action in Iraq in early 2004 (his buddy sent him quite a few "war trophies" while he was over there around late 2003/early 2004.) I was just labeling my collection and wanted to get a proper label for it...and lo and behold...it's a Field Marshal rank! What do you guys think of it? Unfortunately, I don't know anything more than what you see here. I had it pinned to a bulletin board in my office for quite some time (thus the pinhole!) and never even considered the importance of it until today. Could it be a real one?

Dave

Hopefully both of these badges have been sufficiently identified for you. They are both common and their overall value is low. As far as the group is concerned, it's a very nice looking set to someone who made their way into Berlin at the end of the war. It would be interesting to see when and how he earned his Military Merit medal.

Dave

That is one strange cover for a book that has

Soviet Military Medals to U.S. Sea Service

in its title

9780764348297.jpg

I dunno...I kind of like the red color. On the spine and reverse are photos of Soviet medals...Admiral Hewitt's Kutuzov 1st Class on the spine and then a Nakhimov medal, two orders of Glory 3rd Class and a couple order books. The US medals on the front cover are to (hopefully) relay the fact that it's not just a book about Soviet medals, but also about some very nice US medals as well!

http://www.schifferbooks.com/blue-seas-red-stars-soviet-military-medals-to-u-s-sea-service-recipients-in-world-war-ii-5732.html

It's finally up on their website! You can order one now...but you'll have to wait about nine months to get it.

I wonder how the tumbling ruble is going to affect Russian buyers this time around? I know most of the "deep pockets" are well situated with dollars and Euros, but for an average Russian buyer, times might be tough...

In these award recommendations, the DSM was most commonly referred to as the American medal "For Combat Services" or "Excellent Service."

Regards,

slava1stclass

Interestingly, when the Soviet awards were given to the US Merchant Marine in 1944, the Combat Service (or Military Merit) Medal was called the "Distinguished Service Medal." Thus, it appears (from reading the citations) that they actually believed it was higher in precidence than the Order of the Red Star, and thus awarded for more exhibited gallantry/service than the receipients of the RS. Kind of ironic, I think...

Great news, dear Dave :-)

I have absolutly no experience with eBooks or Kindle :-(

Is it possible to read the illustrated version of your fantastic book on a normal laptop?

Kind regards

Christian

Christian:

Yes, they have a kindle download for the desktop and laptop. You can download the software here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/kcp-landing-page?ie=UTF8&ref_=klp_f_win

I typically used my iPad prior to buying my Kindle, and it works fine as well.

Thanks!

Dave

I got my copy as soon as I was done reading. Back in 2007 I wanted one but it never resulted in a book. Now I got a better version for less money. I guess good things comes to those who wait.

Dave would it be OK if I translated one citation for my blog? It's in Swedish and all the texts are about phaleristics. I will include a link to amazon, not sure it will do much for sales though... My readers are few but faitful.

/Kim

Kim:

By all means! Go for it!

Dave

Thanks Chuck! Hope you enjoy it!!

Hopefully no one will mind me flogging this a little on the forum here, but I think it would get lost in the for sale area and besides, it's not really something that I'm selling, per se (Amazon is!)

Back in 2007, I self-published the book "No Deed Forgotten, Soviet Military Awards and Decorations: The Story Behind the Honor". It was basically a compilation of citations that I had researched for items in my collection as well as some of the full stories I wrote about several of my groups. Unfortunately, it was cost prohibitive to produce a version with photos (I did, and it ran about $85) so it was created entirely without images. Regardless, it still sold around 400 copies, which I thought was absolutely great (a book of citations isn't necessarily going to make the NYT best seller list!!)

Anyway, I finally met up with the 20th century and started reading eBooks via the Kindle app for my iPad. I liked it so much I bought a Kindle to take with me to Russia on my trip and my wife and kids all have them as well. So the thought came to me: why not go and make an eBook version of my book, but this time include images??? Especially since I plan on taking down my old website (www.aefuniforms.com) since my host jacked my monthly prices AGAIN, so I'm going to give it a proper burial once my subscription with them is up. So I did a bit of a conversion of my book, added a couple hundred images that I also had on my website, and got it published. I wanted to keep the price low and affordable, so I priced it on Amazon for a whopping $4.99.

Granted, some of the images are 20+ years old (I've been collecting Soviet medals for a while!) and I could probably dedicate another couple months to another full style edit of the book (I spent about seven months compiling it in 2006) but for the price...I don't think anyone will complain.

There are two buying options...one via Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/No-Deed-Forgotten-Military-Decorations-ebook/dp/B00P31LGDG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415029682

And one via my new website (still through Amazon, but my website gets a part of the proceeds, and so that's really cool...) http://www.warconvoys.com/#!recommended-reading/cdfs

Thanks for reading!

Dave

NavyFCO.

Are you referring to TSgt Bieder's picture (holding his awards case)?

Sorry, I didn't mean to infer that TSgt Bieder is one of the GIs seen in post #1 this thread. As best I know, those OGIII-decorated GIs are all 2nd ID soldiers; TSgt Bieder was in the 1st ID. I simply wanted to add Bieder as another U.S. Army OGIII awardee.

That said, since posting the image seen in post #1, I may now have an I.D. on the OGIII-decorated black soldier. I still need to run a few trap lines.

Regards,

slava1stclass

Aha...Sorry...I thought he was the guy next to the black fellow in the photo. My bad. Still, it would have been curious to get the number off Bieder's Glory 3rd...I don't have any prikazes to members of the 1st ID, and that would have helped.

I would absolutely LOVE to find out who the guys are in that photo and track down the black recipient. That would make an awesome JOMSA article, in my opinion. As far as I know, he's the only black recipient of a Soviet medal.

I've known of this photo for probably close to 20 years now...but only found out about the recipient in this thread today. I was able to get in touch with a long time friend of Walter's this morning and supposedly, the family gave away the medals when Walter passed on. I was so trying to get the serial number from the Glory 3rd for my database! Darn!

Here's a great article about him: http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=24868

I was told that the Soviet awards to the US Navy were all unresearchable by multiple (three) researchers (all good people!) However, when I was last in Russia, I was gifted by the author Efimov with the research for the awards, confirming their serial numbers. I think it's all the matter of who asks whom...and who at the Archives wants to go to the effort to get some of the more unusual things. I will say though that the numbers for the US awards weren't perfect (I saw so many of them I could confirm many of the numbers having had the awards in my hands...) and in a couple cases, the same number was listed for different recipients. Typos? Perhaps. Efimov also did tell me that several of the Ushakov/Nakhimov Medals that he researched came back with the same serial number awarded to multiple recipients. Most likely a recording error in the process. One would hope it wasn't a very common error.......

Dang...I'd buy that just for the novelty of it!!

Concur...it does look like a poorly cast fake to me...

Those look like Ukrainian colors. Could it be from the Ukraine?

No, those are the colors of the Air Force flag. I wish I could tell you if it was pre or post 1991, but I'm not familiar with the badge. Without a hammer and sickle, I'd wager it as post-1991, but that's just a guess on my part.

It's for a military-aeronautical faculty member at VPA...I'm assuming an air academy. I see no reason for it to be fake...the value is around $3-$5 USD. Hope that helps!

Thought folks might like to see this. I presented my research at the Central Naval Museum in St Petersburg and Efimov attended in the audience! I was quite flattered and had to get my photo taken with him. He also gave me some fantastic research for my book as well. Super guy!

Thanks! Sent him a PM.

I have a look up...I know who it belonged to...I think...and would like confirmation.

Thanks!

Dave

Those are beautiful medals! If they could only talk!