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Soldiers Medal reasearch


Brian Keith
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Brian Keith

I'm trying to verify a Soldiers Medal, privately engraved to Harry C. Slick, with the date of 30 May, 1944. He doesn't show up on Home of Heroes. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance. No, I don't have photo's.

BKW

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Soldiers Medals are particularly tough to find out about the owner. If you don't get a lucky google hit, you're sometimes out of luck. In my opinion, the best bet would be to find his enlistment doc and then send for his records. Chances are, they burned in 1973, but you might get lucky and maybe something might still be there.

 

Hopefully someone will have better advise!

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Not sure, but he's buried in Ft Wayne (you probably saw that already). SLICK, HARRY C. was born 03 January 1918 in Pennsylvania and Death Master File says, died 13 September 1991.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86688495/harry-c-slick

 

https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&cat=all&tf=F&q=SLICK+Harry+C&bc=sd&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=3605413

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He's not in War Department General Orders, so you'll have to track down a unit to make the search feasible. Since he enlisted on 8 December 1941, he could have been anywhere unfortunately.

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The April 26, 1944 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette indicates he was awarded the Soviet Order of the Red Star for support to the Russians while with the Persian Gulf Command. He was a Tech 5 at the time.

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The April 26, 1944 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette indicates he was awarded the Soviet Order of the Red Star for support to the Russians while with the Persian Gulf Command. He was a Tech 5 at the time.

 

Now that's an interesting twist! I went through my State Department Soviet awards files but couldn't find him though. There were several awardings during this time to all ranks of the Persian Gulf Command, but for whatever reason, I don't show him listed on my documents.

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http://www.historynet.com/the-battle-before-the-battle.htm

 

Harry Slick had stayed alive, averted disaster, and saved a critical cargo. Besides the U.S. Army’s Soldier’s Medal he received the Soviet Order of the Red Star. It was another day in the life of the Persian Gulf Command, the main Allied supply line to Russia. On this unheralded but essential conduit, men shipped arms and materiel in remote obscurity amid astonishingly extreme conditions.

They called themselves “the Forgotten Bastards of Iran.”

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Brian Dentino

Very interesting.......and now we know the rest of the story. Great detective work as usual, and a very cool story from a little part of a huge war.

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Brian Keith

WOW! You folks are GREAT! Very interesting information you all helped with and thanks for all the comments and interest. So, with this information, I decided to purchase the frame of his items on my lunch break today. It was framed up in a home-made fashion; most of the artifacts were glued down. It does have the Soviet ribbon for the Order for the Red Star, pretty interesting! With the interesting info provided by you guys on the forum, I thought it was worth the $. Attached are photos. Thanks to all who assisted with the research on the artifacts of the really interesting story of this soldier! You didnt have to storm a beach to have a great War Story! As far as the home-made frame job, while I wish it hadnt been done in this fashion, likely, it was done by the veteran himself and Im sure he did the best he could. I have seen worse! It is possible that if he hadnt had framed it up to demonstrate that it was of some value, it could well have been discarded. There is damage, but displayed in a rikker, it wont show.

I hope you enjoy the photos! Thanks for your service Harry Slick! RIP!

BKW

post-1549-0-63498900-1520564636.jpg

As found.

post-1549-0-21007600-1520564708.jpg

With out glass

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Brian Keith

post-1549-0-62085500-1520564850.jpg

 

When framed, the person wanted the reverse of the medal to show (engraved with his name), so he cut the threads and flipped over the pinback bar and displayed the obverse.

 

post-1549-0-33083000-1520564880_thumb.jpg

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Brian Keith

post-1549-0-72650400-1520565032.jpg

What you've been wanting to see!

Now, I suspect this would be called unofficial engraving, comments? Is it uncommon to have a date? This must be the date it was awarded as the event it was awarded for happened in 1943.

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Brian Keith

post-1549-0-78712600-1520565225_thumb.jpg

Soviet Order of the Red Star ribbon.

 

 

post-1549-0-37820400-1520565240_thumb.jpg

Reverse showing glue.

Thanks for looking and all your input!

BKW

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Brian Keith

Well worth the price for those items AND the story of this brave soldier and his comrades. Nice pickup!

Thanks you Sir! I very much appreciate your link to this man's story!

BKW

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Thanks you Sir! I very much appreciate your link to this man's story!

BKW

 

You're very welcome! Glad I was able to find it for you. It's a wonderful story!

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What a neat group! I'll have to see what I have about the other recipients in the State Department files about the Soviet medal (I have hundreds of pages to sort through...)

 

I do think it's kind of funny that you asked first before buying...yes, that's typically recommended on the forum, but for the price, I would have broken a finger getting my wallet out the first time I saw it! :D :D For a named and numbered Soldier's Medal group, that's pretty much a bargain price! :)

 

Great find!

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I seem to recall a listing of SM recipients and citations...although it may not be complete...does exist. I have a posthumously named SM to a soldier who drown saving the life of another soldier while on a training mission if memory serves me correct. I believe the citation was among those found in the doc.

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Great medal and grouping. I will add him to my SM i am working on. I only have about 4 thousand names left to find, but many more citations.

I have 64 woman listed who were awarded the SM now.

 

Jeff

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