ebay China US General Marshall's Headquarters DUI

[mghcal]

Since the auction is over I thought I'd add these here in case a forum member was the buyer. These were rare pins sold over the past couple weeks by seller militarybizness. He didn't add any of the history and I'd hate for that to be lost. These all belonged to Colonel Paul J B Murphy. In 1944 he was assigned to the Chinese Training and Combat Command at Ramghar India. In August 1944 he was transferred to Chungking and served as Chief of The Central Purchasing and Procurement Authority. This was the Air Transport Command route over "the hump" from India to China.

 

Here is an interesting article on his service that I'll copy and paste here. Those DI pins would have most likely been in the presence of some very significant meetings during the war. Just hate for that history to be lost now. Of significance is the fact that he was awarded China's highest military award as well.

http://smahistory.com/kablegrams/pdfs/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/19511214-35-05.pdf

 

When the Corps was addressed by Colonel Paul J. B. Murphy on the subject of World War II in Asia many were unable to hear his entire speech. Reprinted here are a few of the high points of his talk, together with a few facts about Colonel Murphy.

 

Colonel Murphy has spent many years in the Corps of Engineers and the General Staff Corps of the Unit- ed States Army. When World War II occurred, he was in command of the 132st Engineer General Service Regiment. In 1944 he was assigned to the Chinese Training and Combat Command at Ramghar, India. At that time, the Chinese Nationalist Armies were divided into the X, Y, and Z forces and were under the command of General Joseph Stillwell The Ramghar Command was part of the Z force, which was commanded by Brigadier General William Bergin, now the Adjutant General of the Department of the Army.

 

In August of the same year Col. Murphy was transferred to Kumming and three weeks later to Chungking. Here he assumed the position of Chief of the Central Purchasing and Procurement Authority. This agency was in charge of procurement of indigenous materials for the Chinese and American forces in China. It had as its medium of transportation the Air Transport Command which was composed of the two motored C-47's and C-46's. This formed the last link in the longest supply line in the world. Supplied destined for the Far East were flown from the U. S. to Brazil, from Brazil to Africa, from Africa to India, and from there to China. The surface route was by water from the U. S. to various ports in India, by rail and barge to Assam, and then to China. The Air Transport Command's leg of this journey extended over a rugged strip of mountainous, Japanese-held territory and into the supply collection point at Kumming. This operation was called "flying the hump" and at the peak of activity supplies flowed in at the rate of one hundred thousand tons per month.

 

Since every bit of supplies had to be flown in, it soon became apparent that gasoline for the thousands of trucks in China could not be sup- plied rapidly enough to meet the demand. Col. Murphy consulted a Chinese Harvard graduate by the name of Dr. Chin Fen about the problem. Dr. Chin told Col. Murphy that a suitable truck fuel could be made by redistilling rice wine. Col. Murphy had a distilling plant set up at Chungking. The wine was collected from Chinese farmers and carried on the backs of coolies to Chungking. At the close of the war, ten million gallons of this fuel had been manufactured, and seventy-five per cent of all ground vehicles were operating on this fuel. For this operation, Col. Murphy was awarded the Legion of Merit, our fourth highest decoration at that time.

 

When the China-Burma-India Theatre was regrouped, Gen. Wedemeyer assumed command of the newly formed Chinese Theatre. He appointed Col. Murphy Assistant G-S. As Col. Murphy says, "It covered everything not under the jurisdiction of the other stall sections." In 194S he became the Assistant G-4 of the China Theatre. In 1946 he was appointed by General Wedemeyer as the War Department representative at the Pauley Reparations Mission. The purpose of this mission was actually to observe Communist activities in Manchuria and Korea. This action was never sanctioned by the Russian government, although the mission eventually gained admittance into Red-held territory. However, they were treated with cold courtesy and kept in almost total formed that it would be total ignorance. Finally, they were informed that it would be the part of wisdom to end their visit. As they left two Red fighter planes accompanied their departure. Col. Murphy reports that the Reds were obviously stripping Manchuria. His last assignment was that of Staff Engineer of the U. S. Military Advisor}' Group to China, whose mission was to train the Chinese Nationalist Armies. The function of this mission was prevented by our State Department, which has continually blocked aid to Nationalist China. Col. Murphy was retired from active duty in 1949. His deepest regret has always been the complete dearth of accurate information supplied to the American people about the situation in the Far East. The most important fact is that only three per cent of American Lend-Lease material ever reached China. We extracted millions of dollars worth of gold bullion from China for surplus war materials. These materials were never delivered, although we had hundreds of empty cargo ships at the end of the war. If ships had been allocated for this purpose, the Chinese Nationalist Army would not be penned up in Formosa as it is today. Besides the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star, Col. Murphy hoids three very remarkable decorations. The first is the Army and Navy Gold Medal for superior command. He holds the Chinese Yun Hui, or Cloud Banner. Third, he was awarded the Pao Ting, or the Order of the Sacred Incense Burner. China's highest award other than that given to reigning monarchs or heads of other nations. In its five thousand years of existence, the two hundred and fifty-ninth Pao Ting was award- ed to Col. Murphy.
His knowledge of world affairs is both deep and thorough. Although now retired, one cannot help but feel his keen interest and his desire to keep abreast of our changing world conditions.

 

Here are the links to the ebay auctions. His dogtags sold about a month ago from another seller. That's where these pins were originally purchased by militarybizness. I'll attach another badge sold by the original seller that was Colonel Murphy's from the China theater.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-WWII-CBI-China-US-General-Marshall-039-s-Headquarters-DUI-DI-Crest-pin-/132289212688?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&autorefresh=true&ssPageName=STRK%3AMESINDXX%3AIT&nma=true&si=u13tdBoUTHw8O9PF%252B%252FkAgOlSXls%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-WWII-CBI-China-US-General-Marshall-039-s-Headquarters-DUI-DI-Crest-pin-/132268248004?hash=item1ecbcd4bc4%3Ag%3AeFAAAOSwn-lZcUoF&nma=true&si=u13tdBoUTHw8O9PF%252B%252FkAgOlSXls%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-WWII-CBI-China-US-General-Marshall-039-s-Headquarters-DUI-DI-Crest-pin-/142464390812?hash=item212b8a169c%3Ag%3AWFgAAOSwnSxZgmxU&nma=true&si=u13tdBoUTHw8O9PF%252B%252FkAgOlSXls%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[tredhed2]

Thanks for taking the time to provide this background informaiton on Col. P.J. Murphy. Hope the new owners appreciate the story behind all this insignia.

[hc8604]

Thanks for sharing! National Decoration Company (NDC) was a Chinese company that made insignias for the ROC and US armies from the mid-1940s until the defeat of the mainland. The Chinese name 中美公司 in English is literally "Chinese-American Company."

 

I agree that a lot of the history and eyewitnesses to the events in China during 1946-1949 is heavily biased and swept away to accommodate the victors/Red China, even though the CCP very good at hiding the fact they actually were very anti-American. The Marshall mission failed to see this and continued to broker the peace between both sides. I think about 30-40 US Marines, stationed to help protect Nationalist military assets, were killed by the Chinese communists attempting to capture weapons and ammo and the US government and Marshall continued to favor the CCP while sending billions of aid to fight the communists in east Europe.

[hc8604]

Third, he was awarded the Pao Ting, or the Order of the Sacred Incense Burner. China's highest award other than that given to reigning monarchs or heads of other nations. In its five thousand years of existence, the two hundred and fifty-ninth Pao Ting was award- ed to Col. Murphy.

 

The name commonly used would be "Order of the Precious Tripod". It was instated in 1929 and came in 9 grades. Not sure of any other similar type of awards before that?

 

[glenm]

Should anyone be interested, his dog tags are also for sale: http://www.ebay.com/itm/WWII-1941-42-Army-Officer-Dog-Tags-Set-With-Maryland-NOK-Address-T41-42/232458007315?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649