A happy Egyptian couple in the 1970s

[ChrisW]

She's definitely got a unique style, but he's wearing all the bling.

He's a major general in the Air Defense Forces, wearing full-sized medals of the Military Star, Military Medal of Courage, Medal of Military Duty and Medal of Training. I'm having a little trouble placing the order around his neck -- Order of Merit? 

He's also got an unusual rectangular cloth or medal patch underneath the Air Defense Forces shield on his arm.

I haven't gone through the ribbons in detail but they include most of the standard Egyptian commemorative and service awards from the 1950s and 1960s.

Chris

 

[922F]

Chris, Thanks for posting this image.  His neck badge looks to be a Saudi Order of King Abdulaziz, commander grade [last ribbon on bar suggests same award]. 

[Rusty Greaves]

Chris & 922F-I agree - look at Ed Haynes' post: 

and Antonio Prieto's post here: 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2018 by Rusty Greaves

[ChrisW]

922F and Rusty,

Many thanks for identifying this! It hadn't occurred to me it could be a foreign award. Perhaps our general was a military attache in Riyadh.

[oamotme]

Yes, definitely the Saudi Order of Abdulaziz which was instituted in March 1971, Regards, Owain

[Lukasz Gaszewski]

Am I right to see also the ribbon of the Sinai Star on the top of his ribbons?

[ChrisW]

Lukasz,

The first ribbon is actually the Order of Liberation commemorating the 1952 Revolution, with the gold palm leaf for officers; this is one of the most commonly-seen ribbons among modern Egyptian medals, and almost always occupies the first spot in a ribbon bar. The Sinai Star ribbon is horizontal stripes of red/white/black. Antonio Prieto's ribbon chart is a useful guide. 

[Rusty Greaves]

Here are two images from a story in the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1190738/Obama-gets-bling--form-Saudi-Arabias-highest-honour.html) of Barack Obama being awarded the King Abdul Aziz Chain of the Order of Merit on June 2, 2009 by King Abdullah. The first image is not high resolution but shows the large case for this award to heads of state. The second image shows President Obama removing the Chain and provides some detail of the chain (but see the link above on my May 2 entry to Antonio Prieto's post).

Edited July 23, 2018 by Rusty Greaves
spelling

[ChrisW]

I’ve recently learned (via the Egyptian Facebook group “Heroes of the October 73 War”) that the officer in this photo is Ali Mahmoud Shoukry. He graduated from the Military Academy in 1949, commanded an antiaircraft artillery battalion during the Egyptian involvement in the Yemen civil war in 1962, commanded an antiaircraft brigade in Egypt’s Western Military Zone in 1967, then served in air defense units along the Suez Canal during the 1967-70 War of Attrition and 1973 War. He retired from the military in 1979. His biography on that site doesn’t mention if he spent time as a military attaché in Saudi Arabia so the origins of his Saudi Order of Abdul Aziz.