Chris Liontas

Very nice Rabbi photo! Very nice shot of the star.

Enjoy it-very much so! Anything like this that still survives is amazing. The medal is rare but how much rarer is the award document? So a LT getting the iron cross was that much rarer than a field grade one?

Wow! Very nice Chris! I've never seen one before. yhatvus about as rare as it gets, even more so than aviators. Any idea where it was awarded (I don't have my glasses. :-) )

I wonder why people do this. Do you think they just don't know, or don't want to learn. With all the information printed, and on line about the Iron Cross, you would think people would be better informed

Great score Chris!

It signifies branch of service. Red is sani, green is jäger etc...

Oooo that is nice!!!! Wow how rare is that Chris? Any idea what happened to him? Was he a Tsarist soldier or part of the monarchy?

I am preempting Chris from doing another one of his, "holy cow I got something awesome and you guys have to wait for me to post it"....posts. I'm not going to steal his thunder, but omg.....I dont collect this stuff and was about to buy this thing. It is that awesome if you like French stuff. ....sorry Chris...I owe you a beer...or Scotch...or whatever :-)

ROFL!!! Touche!! I should never doubt the military "mindset" lol. An amazing grouping any way you cut it! Did they send ARTY liaison officers to company level? Artillery spotting from either plane, balloon, or battery was becoming quite the science by 1918 - so I would not doubt it was possible. Especially if he made it the front before the big 1918 push.

It seems odd after observation training he was not utilized in balloons or spotter aircraft. Why after so much specialized artillery spotting training would he be sent to the infantry

Wow that is nice Chris! Trained in balloon observation?! I've hardly ever seen any American named balloon uniforms. What a find!!! And with his paperwork. How often do you see that anymore

Balades mentions something about this with Bavarian pilot badges after the war I think. He states something about how the crown was broken after the war due to the republic/1919. I'll try to find the reference and take a photo of it.

Amazing piece of history. Gas was so widely used after this, to have a document from the first such incident. Very nice! Where on earth did you find it Chris??

Hi guys!! I wish I was able to own this group. I saw it right after it was sold to Dennis Gordon. He is a big collector of WW1 American Lafayette stuff, and I guess he always wanted a Riff War group. I keep trying to tease it out of him, but what do you offer for the man who has everything??? Adso, thank you for the information. I'd love to read it. I will see if I can find that article. What little I have found on the Riff war is sketchy and mostly third hand stuff. I'd love to read more of Sussan's adventures. When you read Sussan's biography, and look at the medal bar, you just think "there is no way". But as far as I have found, it was all true.

I thought pilot badges were a WW2 thing on chains. Did they place them on chains in WW1??? Ok you're making me go upstairs and read references......again.....she's going to be mad...

A wonderful sentiment. What a wonderful story and a wonderful ending. Thanks for sharing

Beautiful caps guys! I wish I could collect these.

Amazing this was kept together for so long. Great find Chris.

^^^. I'm the same. I like to layer items so you have the maximum utilization of space. I really like the way you are doing that with the German uniforms.

Brian, Great article!! It has been years since I thought about this battle. We studied Kadesh in detail when I was in school. It is a great example of a documented ancient battle, and you bring the propaganda angle out beautifully. My instructor always said this battle was great because both sides thought they won. They therefor wrote about it in detail and you could compare the sides with some accuracy. If one side had been thumped heartily, like you said, only the victor would have written the story. Here we have two victors, and a treaty to study. Excellent article. It always reminds me of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt. When he decisively beat the Malmukes it became, "the Battle of the Pyramids!!" Even though the Pyramids were miles away from the battlefield. It just sounded so good, why not use that to enthrall Europe!

How on Earth did you get all that paint off?? Two layers?? What technique did you use? Can you believe someone covered this helmet up???

Now all we need is for Chris to adopt that hairstyle.

Sorry if I sounded bad, was having a rough day. But honestly for discussion, I agree, I thought the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal would accomplish the same thing. I appears you can give your GWoT medal in for this medal if you want. Does it give you more promotion points? I just fail to see the reason for this medal Does everyone serving still get a National Service Defense Medal? I just still laugh when I see my class A's compared to my Dad's (WWII/Korea/Vietnam) He has two rows of medals/ribbons and I looked like a Red Army General. So many unnecessary ribbons. I'm just waiting for someone to get offended by the stabbing of the scorpion motif. "As you saying Islam is a scorpion??" Soon US medals will only be allowed to have Barny or Big Bird as to not offend.

"inherent resolve medal"?? Yay! Next we need I laced my boots right medal!! :-p

Nice Chris!! I wholeheartedly agree with the child proofing! My man cave now has a "dance floor" in the middle; along with some Barbies and Disney dolls (I mean, who DOESNT need Disney in their war room?). And we have discussed why we don't wear WW1 flight goggles while we run through the house Is that a white regimental flag I see in the back of one photo??