A very unusual ribbon rack with French and one odd ribbon

[wawine]

This is the ribbon rack of a Colonel instructor (with 30 years in the reserves) at the Army Engineers school in the 1970's. I have seen British service medals and French decorations mixed in many times, but this is the first time I have seen strictly French service ribbons including the Combatant Cross. The single service star on the EAME leads me to think he may have been a member of the Foreign Legion until we hit the continent. He would have to have been an actual member of the French forces to get the cross, not just attached. On the row with the Society of Military Engineers and VFW ribbon is Wolf Brown/Vangard 8011 but I have not been able to ID a medal or decoration to go with it. Has anybody any ideas on that one?

[Baron3-6]

He might be a National Guard Officer with state ribbons....the NG get the Reserve component service ribbon as well. Nice Engineer coat with the correct buttons.I get the feeling from this picture that the jacket pre-dates the ribbons by several decades....possibly a set the old guy put together to wear, especially with all the association ribbons being present.

[wawine]

I thought of that so I dug through every state with no luck. Colorado has one that matches the VFW ribbon so I started there and struck out.

 

The uniform is older. It is one of the old, all cotton dress whites, named to an N. Murdock.

[Teamski]

Funky rack for sure! Looks like he was with the French army in WWI and WWII.......unless the WWI Victory ribbon is supposed to be the French Wound medal. I think you are correct in thinking that he was with the French Foreign Legion as an American joinee and swapped over after the North African campaign. Now that is a rack with a story!

 

-Ski

[wawine]

The one that looks like the WW1 victory is actually a WW2 French 'Liberation ' medal

[JBFloyd]

The ribbon after the VFW ribbon is the Sons of the American Revolution War Service Medal.

[12A54]

Can you show the back of this ribbon rack? The mount might give a clue. (To me it looks like a newer black metal rack rather than one used over 40 years ago.)

[Dave]

Is there a name or ID to the uniform? That would pin things down a bit better. As it appears, the ribbons are much newer than the uniform, and the mounting rack appears to be the standard "modern" metal type. This could indicate whether or not it was put together by a 80+ year old veteran, or perhaps a family member, and thus might not be 100% accurate.

[wawine]

The uniform is much older than the rack, which is easily apparent by the three devices on the AFR medal. Colonel Murdock was an instructor at the Army Engineers school in the late 1970's and this was his Dress White uniform. Obviously, as a civilian reservist, these are not the ribbons one would see worn while on active service. The Sons of the American Revolution War Service Medal was the missing link, thank you!

[Baron3-6]

Whats the full name of the COL?

[Teamski]

The one that looks like the WW1 victory is actually a WW2 French 'Liberation ' medal

 

 

You are correct!

[wawine]

I don't have his full name, unfortunately, just a first initial N. and Murdock. It bears the DI of the Army Engineer School on the right breast, which is how I tracked him down. Got a BSM,PH and CM, but not so easy to trace them either. Finding out what he did for the French would be great, but also tough to do, so I may just call this one good where it is.

[Dave]

I had no luck finding an engineer by that name (or anyone that would be a close match.) If you want to invest the time, here are the Registers online to pick through...

 

https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22United+States.+Army+and+Navy%22&page=2

 

It would be neat to see what he did!

[Baron3-6]

The Engineer School crests and the Engineer Regimental crests are often confused - the school house ones have a lamp on top of the crest and are worn in a pair on the epaulets. The Regimental affiliation crest is worn over the right pocket by all officers and soldiers of the engineer branch.

 

I think yours is the regimental affiliation crest just showing he's a member of the engineer branch - probably not an engineer school cadre member. The regimental affiliation stuff started in 1981 - so it kind of confirms what we were all saying about an older retired officer wearing his old uniform to "current" regulation. What area of the country did this come out of?

[wawine]

Actually, this is the school version DI with the lamp, not the standard COE DI. It came out of the east coast in a large, mixed lot. None of the others in the lot were affiliated with this one. A Korean War USMC HBT to a KIA, an officer double patched Bushmaster etc.