Hungary 1983-Meritorious Service Medal for Flight Hours

[Gordon Craig]

One of the awards missing from our forum has been the medals awarded for the number of hours flown by Hungarian pilots. Probably because they don't come up for sale very often. Earlier this week I was able to acquire four from the 1983 series of these badges. The entire set comprises medals for the flight times of 3500 hours, 3000 hours, 2500 hours, 2000 hours, 1500 hours, 1000 hours and 500 hours. The four pictured below are for 500, 1500, 2500 and 3500 hours. Please note that two of the nedals have the aircraft missing from them. I never noticed this fact until I got home and the two medals without airplanes have been returned to the vendor.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

The reverse of these medals. There were several different makers for these medals so sevseral variations exist. These four medals illustrate this very well when viewed from the back. You can see medals with the attachment rings orientated the same way as the medal or rotated 90 degrees. Another medal has the attachment ring as a sepatate piece attached down the back of the medal.

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the front of the 500 hour medal. This medal was in a number of different pieces when I acquired it. Some cleaning and some super glue did wonders for it.

Edited April 19, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the front of the 1500 hour medal. When compared with the 500 hour medal it is quite dark. It has been completely covered in some sort of plastic coating which would help it stay together. Another manufacturers variation.

[Gordon Craig]

There are also issues of this medal for the years 1964 and 1965 with a different series of numbers for hours flown. If you have any of these medals it would be appreciated if you would post pictures of them for all of our reference.

Regards,

Gordon

[order_of_victory]

Heres my cased 800 hours medals

Order of Victory

[Gordon Craig]

Order of Victory,

Thanks for the post. Very nice cased medal. The 800 ora medal only exists in the 1965 issue of these medals.

Regards,

Gordon

[order_of_victory]

Order of Victory,

Thanks for the post. Very nice cased medal. The 800 ora medal only exists in the 1965 issue of these medals.

Regards,

Gordon

Wow I never relised that

Thanks Gordon

Order of Victory

[Gordon Craig]

Order of Victory,

Just to make sure I made my self clear, the 1965 issue of the these medals was awarded up to the time the 1983 type medals started to be issued. However, even though they were awarded over a considerable length of time they are still rare. Especially cased ones.

Regards,

Gordon

[order_of_victory]

Order of Victory,

Just to make sure I made my self clear, the 1965 issue of the these medals was awarded up to the time the 1983 type medals started to be issued. However, even though they were awarded over a considerable length of time they are still rare. Especially cased ones.

Regards,

Gordon

Thanks Gordon for the clarification

So were there any before 1964

Order of Victory

[hunyadi]

Thanks Gordon for the clarification

So were there any before 1964

Order of Victory

Of course there were... the 1964 version of which were abandoned in 1965 for the enameled type. For 1964 there is 800, 550, 350, 200 hours. In 1965 the lot was expanded to 2000, 1500, 800, 550, 350, 200 hours. In 1983 the flyboys were given 3500, 3000, 2500, 2000, 1500, 1000, 500. (1983 also saw the creation of the Paratrooper medal with 3500, 3000, 2500, 2000, 1500, 1000, 500 jumps)

[Gordon Craig]

Order of Victory,

Charles has beaten me to the answer and has done a better job than I as I don't have all of the 1964 medals. Strangely enough, the 1964 type of medal is more available than the 1965 or the 1983 ones. Perhaps that is a task for me to concentrate on today. Seeing just what I have in the 1964 medals so I can list what I need to look for at the Flea Markets this weekend.

Regards,

Gordon

[hunyadi]

Order of Victory,

Charles has beaten me to the answer and has done a better job than I as I don't have all of the 1964 medals. Strangely enough, the 1964 type of medal is more available than the 1965 or the 1983 ones. Perhaps that is a task for me to concentrate on today. Seeing just what I have in the 1964 medals so I can list what I need to look for at the Flea Markets this weekend.

Regards,

Gordon

Hi Gordon -

In all actuality the 1964 ones are extremely rare. What you may be refering to is the fact that the 1964 medals were continued for issue up until the end - but only for civilans working in the armed forces. After 1964 the same die was used but instead of the reverse being plain there was the inscription "Honvedelemi Erdemerem". One variant that is rare and not too often seen is the 1964 issue type but with the "Honvedelemi Erdemerem" engraved into the reverse so that it could be issued after 1965. To give you a perspective - I have been looking for the 1964 series (plain reverse) for over a year now and have only found one, but it was too expensive. I have also found only about 3-4 of the engraved reverse types but again the seller (Junke Shopee) wants more for that 10 year one than I have desire for paying. Below is the post 1965 version with the inscription on the back.

[hunyadi]

Also for more clarification - prior to 1964 the medal that was awarded for "long service" was the "Meritorious Service Medal" with the explination that it was to be awarded for "promoting the merits of service" (over a period of time). It was instituted in 1953 when there was a shift in the bestowal of medals. Prior to 1953 both civilians and the military were awarded the same medals as the men in uniform willing to give their lives for the nation were to be 'equal' to those who worked in the factory 'building socialism'. But when the military was dwongraded in size in 1953 - the military it seems wanted some sort of compensation so a series of "Military Only" medlas were issued. Below is the 1957 version of the Meritorious Service Medal of which 14,259 were awarded till 1964.

[order_of_victory]

Thanks for the info hunyadi

Do you any pics of the ones before 1964

Order of Victory

[Gordon Craig]

Charles,

Thanks for making sense out of these medals for me. Didn't make sense that the older medals would be the easiest to find. Since the large medals book doesn't show the backs of the medals I didn't realize there were two sets that looked the same. I need to add this to this to the info in my files on the Large Medals book.

Regards,

Gordon

[hunyadi]

Thanks for the info hunyadi

Do you any pics of the ones before 1964

Order of Victory

The picture in post #14 is what was handed out for a period of serivce prior to 1964. Though it was up to the commanindg officer to recomend you for one - so not everyone got one automaticaly after serving a specific ammount of time.

Edited April 20, 2007 by hunyadi

[order_of_victory]

The picture in post #14 is what was handed out for a period of serivce prior to 1964. Though it was up to the commanindg officer to recomend you for one - so not everyone got one automaticaly after serving a specific ammount of time.

Ah I know understand

Order of Victory