mndoss Posted August 20, 2016 Share #1 Posted August 20, 2016 I've had this uniform for a number of years now and I've posted pictures of it here on the forum a long time ago. I just yesterday received from Geoff at Golden Arrow Research Capt New's file. I always figured something was wrong with the ribbon bars on the uniform (the Marine Corps never issued arrowhead devices) and after some cursory digging online I was able to find out that he was awarded the Legion of Merit. I also found on Ancestry.com the muster rolls for him. With that and the Legion of Merit citation I was able to find out that he was a bomb disposal officer serving with the wing, but other than that nothing. Now that I have 45 pages of research on him I've been able to uncover more. Geoff has been working this file for me for literally a few years. I can't say enough about him! Now that I have his file I want to correctly restore his uniform to what he rates. His record includes his record of service which I'll include in this thread. Aside from the Legion of Merit I'm going to assume he received the WWII Victory Medal, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, American Campaign Medal, and Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal (he was in the reserves during his time). I'm going to guess that he would rate one campaign star on his Pacific Campaign Medal for New Georgia (fighting was still going on when he landed). He landed on Guadalcanal after the campaign was formally ended. He served with HQ Squadron, 2d MAW, and was part of the New Georgia Air Force. Does anyone know what, if any, unit awards he would have rated? The interesting thing about his Legion of Merit is that it looks like he was delayed in receiving it because the citation included some at the time classified information. As for shooting badges, no impact, no idea on those since his record doesn't state as far as I can find. It's good to finally have his service record as this was the first Marine Corps officer uniform I had in my collection. It came complete and named to him and is a beauty. I'm glad that I can finally honor him by accurately representing him through this grouping. This is what makes this hobby so much fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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swmdo Posted August 20, 2016 Share #13 Posted August 20, 2016 Should the star points be pointed up on the bottom two ribbons? I would hit that on a personnel inspection. They are flipped upside down. Attention to detail or were they that way on the uniform when you got them? Is the red white and blue in the middle of that pacific theater ribbon in the right direction? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swmdo Posted August 20, 2016 Share #14 Posted August 20, 2016 Nice uniform though and good luck getting it back in order. I was always hit on that kind of stuff by an old Chief....by the way I was stationed on Okinawa in the day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mndoss Posted August 20, 2016 Author Share #15 Posted August 20, 2016 Should the star points be pointed up on the bottom two ribbons? I would hit that on a personnel inspection. They are flipped upside down. Attention to detail or were they that way on the uniform when you got them? Is the red white and blue in the middle of that pacific theater ribbon in the right direction? That's how they were when I got them. I haven't touched those ribbons and they're still on the uniform. It wouldn't surprise me if that's how they were originally put on there, from what I've seen on original examples and in photos it seemed that during WWII a lot of uniform regs weren't closely followed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Linz Posted August 20, 2016 Share #16 Posted August 20, 2016 The star placement on those ribbons is perfectly correct for World War II. During World War II the Naval services placed the stars on their ribbons with the single point down. That was changed a couple years after the end of war. Semper Fi, Bruce Linz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Barickman Posted August 20, 2016 Share #17 Posted August 20, 2016 Yup, Marines, sailors and many WWII vets seemed to do whatever with ribbons. Nice group and looks like the LOM was downgraded to a Bronze Star or did I miss something. Thanks for sharing. Kurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mndoss Posted August 20, 2016 Author Share #18 Posted August 20, 2016 Yup, Marines, sailors and many WWII vets seemed to do whatever with ribbons. Nice group and looks like the LOM was downgraded to a Bronze Star or did I miss something. Thanks for sharing. Kurt The LoM wasn't downgraded, the ribbons on the uniform came with it when I bought it but aren't his. Someone put those on at some point in time. He never received a Bronze Star and he wouldn't have received the Philippine Liberation Medal since he didn't serve in the Philippines. The Marine Corps also didn't use arrowhead devices. I'm trying to recreate his original ribbon bar based off of what I found in his service record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swmdo Posted August 20, 2016 Share #19 Posted August 20, 2016 I did not know that regarding ribbon stars for WWII. Learned something new. Thanks all for educating me and it's interesting all the nuances between eras... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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