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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,608 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1601 Posts |
I've been trying to find something on the medal or citation that goes with this ribbon for decades. It's not one of the common WWII medals or even an uncommon one. In fact, I've only seen it pictured in one illustration that I found o the internet and there was only a number with it, no name or info. It's in the highest position (in it's own row) on a WWII "Ike Jacket". I's army, infantry (9th Div.), ETO, and the soldier continued on in Germany a couple years after the war. If anybody has a clue or a friend who knows anything about medals and ribbons, please pass it on. I'm about out of places to look. I'll check back from time to time, Thanks!  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
992 Posts |
It's the ribbon to the WW1 Belgian Croix de Guerre. The WWII ribbon has a differing arrangement of the stripes.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1601 Posts |
I'd considered that but it doesn't fit the soldier. He was part of the Ardenne campaign and "something unusual" happened there, but ...?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7840 Posts |
I was thinking that it was a WWI European Campaign Medal (Cross) of some sort...I started looking in France but did not get up to Belgium.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
992 Posts |
He could have been awarded the WWII medal and ribbon, and somehow ended up with the WWI ribbon. Audie Murphy and Jimmy Stewart were also a recipient of the award, so perhaps the soldier is in good company.
Or, it could have been a gift or similar and merely added to the jacket later.
If you know the soldier personally, he can perhaps tell you, if he still lives.
The award was also made to US Army units, so that is another avenue.
Edited by paxbrit
09/19/2017 2:10 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4409 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1601 Posts |
Well, I know what it is, just not the circumstances of why it was awarded or given to him. The soldier was my grandfather and he's been gone thirty years now.
He was one of those guys who rarely talked about the war or his time overseas. When my grandmother died, we started going through old papers and came across accounts of where he'd been and what he'd done. Always seemed to be in the thick of things that they made movies about. In addition to Ardenne, there was Hurtgen forest, keeping a dam from being blown up by the Germans, Rhineland (Remagen).
Thanks for the help, folks.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
524 Posts |
(Edited) Not a Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) membership ribbon. It looks like the Belgian Croix referenced above.  Edited by willieboyd2
09/22/2017 2:23 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
992 Posts |
On ebay there is an identical ribbon bar, stated to be the Belgian Croix de Guerre, as worn by US personnel in the 1960's. So it does not seem to be something the soldier 'added', but a genuine award, to me. The Hurtgen Forest was a pretty nasty campaign, I lost an uncle there in 1944, just one among the thousands of GI's lost in a month. |
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,608 |
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Posted 09/19/2017 12:05 pm
