Hungary The Excellent Soldier on Parade badge

[Gordon Craig]

For some time I have been trying to sort out who exactly wore the "A D?SZSZEMLE KIV?LO KATON?JA" (The Anniversary Excellent Soldier) badge/pin. While they are not plentiful, there are too many of them around to have just been awarded to a couple of those on parade. Today I solved that question because of the youtube video below. Almost everyone shown in this parade is wearing one of these badges. They were not given out for every annual parade (held on the 4th of April each year). I have only seen examples dated 1975 and 1980. The picture shows the badge being worn by an officer and after viewing the parade this is probably not correct because it appears to have been only worn by those in the rank and file part of the parade.

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=p-sxG9mIYcI&feature=related" target="_blank">http://youtube.com/watch?v=p-sxG9mIYcI&feature=related</a>

Regards,

Gordon

Edited May 21, 2008 by Gordon Craig