DFC

[Guest WAR LORD]

This is a very interesting award.

LEVI RICHARD CHASE. They comprise of:

? Distinguished Service Medal

? Silver Star w/2 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters (OLCs)

? Legion of Merit w/ 1 Bronze OLC

? Distinguished Flying Cross w/1 Silver OLC

? Bronze Star

? Air Medal w/5 silver OLCs

? Purple Heart

? Distinguished Unit Citation w/1 OLC

? Air Force Outstanding Unit Citation w/3 OLCs

? Croixe de Guerre

? British Distinguished Flying Cross w/Bar

? Chinese Order of Cloud and Banner

Colonel LEVI RICHARD CHASE, was one of only two Americans to ever have be awarded the British Distinguished Flying Cross with Bar.

264 honorary crosses and 3 first bars were awarded to officers of the United States Air Force for service in the Second World War and a further 8 honorary crosses and 2 first bars were awarded to officers in the Korean War. The bars were awarded to Colonels R. A. Berg and L. R. Chase whose crosses were awarded in the Second World War. Colonel L. R. Chase flew first on 11 February 1941 and went on to fly in Africa in 1943, Burma in 1945, Korea in 1952 and Vietnam in 1966, where on 30 September 1966 he completed his 500 combat missions.

Edited April 29, 2006 by WAR LORD

[Tony Farrell]

Is it named on the reverse Chris? And... where's the rest of his gongs?

[Guest WAR LORD]

No its not named, only the relavent date on the cross and bar. The rest of the medals are with his family.

[Ed_Haynes]

And the dates are . . . ???

[Guest WAR LORD]

The DFC is 1945 and the Bar 1955

[Ed_Haynes]

Nice. You have the recommendations?

[Guest WAR LORD]

No unfortunatly.

[Ed_Haynes]

The first should be easy enough to get from the NA (nee PRO), the second may be more complex, but I think these Korea-era records opened recently. Sometimes kinky for awards to foreigners, but usually they are there if one has the willingness to do The Hard Work That is Research. Not headed that way anytime soon, or I would offer to look.

[Tony Farrell]

The rest of the medals are with his family.

So why is this one different? Really, this is in danger of becoming a single unattributable item/s. I am rather baffled as to why it's not with the rest of his entitlement?

[Guest WAR LORD]

One son had part of the things the other this and other items. However there are some atributing pieces and letter, so that problem will not arise. I am trying to obtain the other awards to build a representative group. Ant help on the Chineze Cloud and Banner would be extreemly helpful.

[USMedalGuy2012]

WARLORD,

I see this was topic is quite old but I am extremely interested in this medal recipient. I found your posting through the research I was doing.

Am I correct to assume that you have ownership of this award? That was 6 years ago, do you still have it? Also curious to find out how you came across it. You mentioned provenance from a letter and an attempt to acquire the remaining medals from another son. How did that work out for you?

Regards,

Bill

[Mervyn Mitton]

Bill - looking back at the original post from 2006, I see that this member was banned by the Chairman.

I don't know the circumstances.

Meanwhile - welcome to GMIC. Mervyn

[USMedalGuy2012]

Thank you sir for the welcome. I am enjoying the group so far.

[USMedalGuy2012]

All,

After doing some research on the ground, I've found mention of the 1945 Citation which in itself is a very interesting story. Chase was granted the medal in 1945 but was posted outside of the CBI theatre at the time. He did not learn about it until contacted by the British Embassy in 1951.

You can read the newspaper account in the attached link @ my website.

https://sites.google.com/site/thefightingcommanderlrc/military-career/decorations/dfc-citation---1945

This explain some of the inconsistencies in trying to track down the citation through the normal routes provided by the British government.

Enjoy!

[peter monahan]

Wow! A well deserved honour!