Soviet Unknown Air Force General HSU M1969 Field Tunic

[Guest Rick Research]

This has been bugging me for all the many years since I have had this tunic.

Does the combination of awards suggest who the original wearer was to anyone?

Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union removed (naturally), as well as either the Honored Military Pilot or Military Navigator badge over his wings. M1969 closed collar field tunic with 1969 dated buttons, Major General rank--and no sign of a Guards badge. This was worn between 1970 and 1975--

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Order of Lenin (for the Hero star), ORB, ORB, OPW2/

ORS (long service), MMM (long service), 1970 Lenin Jubilee, Victory Over Germany/

1965, Capture of Budapest, 1948, 1958/

1968, and 20 Years Service.

Joined no later than 1942, but WW2 combination seems to suggest around then-- a spectacular but brief air combat career (right to the big stuff, no starting out with the lower end awards), the lone campaign medal for Budapest but no other WW2 medals...

and absolutely none of the usual "fraternal" awards for jubilees and parades that an ace might be expected to have acquired with state-paid post-war travel.

[Riley1965]

Rick,

As per your question, I don't know. However, I would like to see a picture of the tunic. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

Doc

[Paul R]

Yes Rick! Please post the entire tunic!!!

[Guest Rick Research]

Hey! All I can do is what fits on the scanner!

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There should always be a "tunnel" under the right shoulder strap for the crossbelt to slide through.

All removable insignia WAS removed. That's a fake Gold Star, a close as I could get Russian Federation Honored Military Pilot (either fake or unissued--no serial number), M1966 1st Class pilot, and underneath what I believe was an academy badge rather than a Guard badge from the usual jammed-through ruination of screwbacks telltale screw-disk marks.

[NavyFCO]

Unfortuantely, no one comes to mind, and unfortunately also, this rack is a bit too "ordinary" to pin to a single fellow. Lots of possibilities with this guy... Could have gotten his HSU as a pilot during WW2, though given the lack of lower awards, it may well have been a 1968 "catch up" HSU award that a good number of general officers received for being...well...general officers in 1968 after having fought in the War. Most of these fine gents were political officers, and thus the awards were routed up that chain of command and (of course) approved.

Of course, he could have been one of the few guys that picked up an HSU post-WW2 for "real" action, such as Budapest or one of the many other little wars that the USSR got themselves into... without knowing who it was, you'll unfortunately never fully know for sure...

Looks like he got an MM and RS for long service, but didn't join early enough to get his RB for long service. That's pretty cool, though an OGPW2 and two RBs for a pilot during the War wasn't exactly common... seems more something that a political officer might have. Of course, he may have done something spectacular as a young officer that garnered him these lofty awards as a Junior or Senior Lieutenant, so there's a possibility there.

As for the lack of foreign awards... remember, they weren't REQUIRED to wear the foreign awards, so he technically could have had them and just not worn them on his field uniform. Most field uniforms to general officers that you find are near mint anyway, suggesting that these were rarely worn, and thus (as one can imagine) the officer probably invested as little of hard-earned cash as they could into these uniforms - just putting the bare minimum on them.

Just my two (or more) thoughts...

Dave

[Guest Rick Research]

I thought perhaps as a "combat" uniform that maybe this was an "all Soviet front" and so the knick knack foreign stuff was left off... but this is the only M1969 generals' field tunic I've encountered with the ribbon bar still on there, so no range to have any experience judging.

This guy was definitely a flyer from the fossilized wings holes though of course WHICH wings is only a guess.

I was hoping that the odd double ORB and OPW2 (no wartime Red Star, no other wartime awards) might have helped...

hope springs eternal! Maybe somebody REALLY bored and flipping through the Heroes bios volumes will have this combination leap off the page sometime!