WW1 State of Connecticut Service Medal

[muckaroon1960]

Made by the Robbins Company of Attleboro, Massachusetts a First World War veterans service medal complete with box of issue and service ribbon. I believe there are other state medals for WW1 service, does anyone have any information on this?

[muckaroon1960]

Reverse of medal.

[lambert]

Yes, some states and many cities and counties, this site has a small sample of it.

http://www.medailles1914-1918.fr/etats-unis-medai.html

and here.

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/49864-state-local-veteran-organizational-issue-medals/

BR

Lambert

Edited May 25, 2013 by lambert

[muckaroon1960]

Great, thanks for that, much appreciated.

[Guest Rick Research]

I have to hand the 1941 printed record of all Connecticut WW1 service personnel, all branches. If a name (and hopefully town) is known, can provide service numbers and details.

[muckaroon1960]

I have also just recently picked up these two. 1917-19 Honorable service Westfield New Jersey and the Pennsylvania National Guard 1916 Mexican Border service medal which is numbered 15921.

[kingsman64]

Rick

could you please do look up for George R. Dwyer Hartford Connecticut believed to have served in the 102nd infantry and wounded October 1918 near Verdun. Received a retrospective Purple Heart in 1932.

Does anybody know if it is possible to obtain the blue/white/red ribbon shown in the pictures above?

thanks

Paul

[Guest Rick Research]

"Dwyer, George R.

# 64,867, White

Hartford, Conn.

Enl NG Hartford, Conn. July 18/17.

Br. Hartford, Conn. 18 2/12 yrs. Co

F 1 Inf CNG (Co F 102 Inf) to

disch. Pvt; Pvt 1cl May 25/18;

Corp Sept 27/18; Chemin des

Dames; Toul; Troyon; Chavignon;

Chateau Thierry; St Mihiel; Ver-

dun; Argonne. WIA severely Oct

27/18. AEF Oct 27/17 to Apr 21/19.

Hon disch May 22/19. 10% dis-

abled."

Records of this era often go to stupid lengths not to simply put in DATE of birth--in this case assuming no clerical error, May 1899. Social Security Death Index online will probably tell you when and where he died. (NOT one of my cousins!)

[Guest Rick Research]

102 Inf Rgt was in 26th "Yankee" Division. Company F members Sgt. Eric S. Olsen and Cpl. Earl H. Sanderson earned Distinguished Service Crosses. Officers only listed the regiment so no idea if any of them were in Co F.

Dwyer was entitled to the Victory Medal with 5 clasps (usually worn first to last top to bottom)

Champagne-Marne (July 15-18,1918)

Aisne-Marne (July 18-25,1918)

St. Mihiel (September 12-16,1918)

Meuse Argonne (October 18, 1918 until his wound), and

Defensive Sector (all line divisions received this generic bar)

Per regulations that would make a silver star on a ribbon bar (1 to 4 clasps = bronze stars), but I have seen 5 jammed on because a silver star was used until creation of the Silver Star decoration to indicate a citation--not all of which were upgraded to Silver Stars later.

[kingsman64]

102 Inf Rgt was in 26th "Yankee" Division. Company F members Sgt. Eric S. Olsen and Cpl. Earl H. Sanderson earned Distinguished Service Crosses. Officers only listed the regiment so no idea if any of them were in Co F.

Dwyer was entitled to the Victory Medal with 5 clasps (usually worn first to last top to bottom)

Champagne-Marne (July 15-18,1918)

Aisne-Marne (July 18-25,1918)

St. Mihiel (September 12-16,1918)

Meuse Argonne (October 18, 1918 until his wound), and

Defensive Sector (all line divisions received this generic bar)

Per regulations that would make a silver star on a ribbon bar (1 to 4 clasps = bronze stars), but I have seen 5 jammed on because a silver star was used until creation of the Silver Star decoration to indicate a citation--not all of which were upgraded to Silver Stars later.

Wow Rick that is fantastic thank you so much I will take a picture of his Purple Heart group and post it later.

Any ideas where I could pick up a silver star ribbon device? I would like to make up a ribbon bar to frame with his decorations.

Also was there a generic Infantry cap badge worn in WW1 by American infantry or did the 102nd have a unit specific cap badge?

Sorry for all the questions I have been collecting British medals for 36 years but couldnt resist a group named to my family name so now have my first USA group

(I can hear the wife screaming in the background not another theme!)

[Guest Rick Research]

The 1920 issue WW1 ribbon stars were much bigger than the little ones found on WW2 ribbons. I don't know where you'd be able to find one-- but unless he served in uniform again in WW2, Dwyer probably never wore cloth ribbons. Our veterans in civilian clothes just don't. (I've got an 86 year old WW2 veteran friend who refuses to apply for his medals-- "I'll never wear them anyway so why bother?")

Our line soldiers then had no cap badge at all because they wore either the Smokey Bear/RCMP type "cowboy" hat pinched into 4 dents on top (the "Montana peak") with branch of service colored cord, or only had overseas caps. Dwyer would have had a dark bronze circular collar disk with "U.S." on the right side and the same but with only crossed rifles on his left side. Regimentally numbered ones were soon abandoned in the mass expansion 1917-18.

He may never have had the blue conjoined "YD" divisional patch until he got home. I suspect more date from 1919 than 1918. There were all sorts of unit specific background uniform color material backings, but I'm not familiar with specific regimental ones: diamonds, squares etc. I'm right here at the heart of the now disbanded "YD" territory... but none of my kin ever served in it in any of our wars!

Edited July 24, 2013 by Rick Research

[kingsman64]

Rick

could this be my man? Only one I can find enlisting in Hartford Connecticut.

[Guest Rick Research]

The age does not match your George Dwyer at all... 2 months short of 18 versus "23" BUT given the idiotic lengths they went to back then to simply not put DATE of birth (and I know from my own family over the centuries in Connecticut how often their reported ages DECREASED rather than INCREASED ) Could very well be. Being at the reform school could explain his eagerness to enlist under then-current draft age BUT it would and could not explain how he would have been able to register for the draft at 17 passing as 23. THAT would have required friendly official collusion.

Still, he was big for that era, and obviously willing....

Or: 23 year old (and thus staff not inmate?) farmer Dwyer was never called up for military duty, just registered for the draft. As I understand things, those who had already enlisted were NOT registered--which would apply to "1899" Dwyer--who signed up before the age required to register. There was no Dwyer at all from Cheshire who served in WW1, no other G-first initial Dwyer in the state, no other middle initial-G Dwyer, nor either combination of Dyer.

Cheshire was farm territory. My family farmed there--though I never realized there WAS a reform school. The nearest place to enlist would have been Hartford. I had a great-granduncle who crossed over to Brooklyn, NY to enlist in the navy in 1917 as their nearest recruiting station, so traveling to sign up was not unusual.

I'd say check thee U.S. Social Security Death Index for likely suspects (born 1899 NOT 1893/94) and then from there see about local newspaper obituaries online.

My gut instinct is this draft record was a first, failed attempt to get into the army "illegally," with too confident declaration of being implausibly older than he actually was... so being already in Hartford, 4 months later the National Guard recruiter cheerfully took him at barely legal 18.

Which begs the question: was he indeed even 18 then? Supposedly born in Hartford, but that would involve deling with Big City bureaucracy now that has never been enthusiastic about "genealogical" ramblings--especially without a SPECIFIC date to flip to one page for. It was and is different out in small towns.

Got you hooked on tracking down his life story now?

[Guest Rick Research]

BTW, here is the M1916 insignia for an infantry and Machine Gun Privates First Class.

During the war only staff enlisted personnel at the U.S. Military Academy wore the single "lance corporal" stripe until the chevron was restored in 1920.

[kingsman64]

BINGO!

Now have full name George Robert Dwyer, confirmation of service number and his wife's name lots more avenues to explore I am a very happy bunny!

Just need an excuse to visit Florida so I can get a picture of his headstone

[Guest Rick Research]

There is also some sort of global cemetery markers online website Out There!

That time and place (note they were still getting his birth year wrong-- "1899" in red correcting 1898 typed) should give you a newspaper obituary--not that THOSE are always accurate.

Ain't this internet thing grand--when it works?

[Hoyden R.]

Go to the Find-A-Grave website and check it, there may be a photo. Sometimes people will go take pictures of graves for you from the local grave finder community. I had someone take pictures in ME for me and I in turn took pictures in Cheshire and Hamden, CT for someone else.

[Paul C]

No match in findagrave.com

[Hoyden R.]

He's buried in the Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater, Florida. Some cemeteries have lists of those interred as well as a directory of where you can locate the grave on their website, so I went to have a look.

No luck.

So I called the Cemetery at 727-796-1992 and spoke to Karen, who was most helpful. She looked up his grave information and called me back with the following:

George Robert Dwyer was buried on 28 March 1960
His Grave is located in Garden West, Lawn B
Lot 283, Space 1

Now you need to find someone local to Clearwater, FL to go take a picture of the grave for you.

Sometimes members of the American Legion Posts, Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts or local War Veterans groups will take pictures. I've known others to put an add up on Craig's list requesting someone to go take a picture for them.

http://www.sylvanabbey.com/location/about/cemetery.html

[kingsman64]

So I called the Cemetery at 727-796-1992 and spoke to Karen, who was most helpful. She looked up his grave information and called me back with the following:

George Robert Dwyer was buried on 28 March 1960
His Grave is located in Garden West, Lawn B
Lot 283, Space 1

Now you need to find someone local to Clearwater, FL to go take a picture of the grave for you.

Sometimes members of the American Legion Posts, Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts or local War Veterans groups will take pictures. I've known others to put an add up on Craig's list requesting someone to go take a picture for them.

http://www.sylvanabbey.com/location/about/cemetery.html

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to do this I really appreciate your efforts and with the information you have provided at least I can direct somebody right to the plot perfect!