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USS Tennessee Medal to a Marine


EGA-DOG
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Clyde Swartzfager was born in Jacksonville, Oregon. He enlisted in 1928, and served with the 5th Marine Regiment in Nicaragua from 1929-1930. post-7989-0-88422400-1550976090.jpgpost-7989-0-45313700-1550976108_thumb.jpg

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Thank you. Does anyone else have a USS Tennessee medal they would like to post?

 

 

Here is a USN second Good Conduct Award (bar) for the USS Tennessee dated 12/9/31. Twelve years later, Minnesota-born, California-transplant, Chief Machinist Mate Harold Gustaf ”Swede" Sjostrom was among 202 of 273 men KIA when the Benham-class destroyer USS Rowan (DD-405) went down in less than a minute, shortly after midnight on 9/11/43. The destroyer was torpedoed by a German E-boat during the invasion of Sicily. Any snipes on duty in the belly of the destroyer likely didn't stand a chance of survival. Hopefully Swede’s KIA Purple Heart is out there somewhere, not in a landfill, and respected for what is symbolizes. I had the pleasure of meeting one of the Rowan survivors several years ago and taking him out to dinner. He identified some of the men for me in the crew photo from 9/41 at Norfolk, including Sjostrom.

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/275018-chief-machinists-mate-harold-g-sjostrom-kia-11-september-1943-uss-rowan-dd-405-sunk-by-german-e-boat-1927-good-conduct-medal/?hl=%2Bharold+%2Bsjostrom

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Neat to see these. I picked up a paper grouping that seemed to be the contents of a sailor's wallet a couple years ago. It included an Order of the Deep card off the Tennessee dated May 20, 1936. Longitude 81 degrees, 8 minutes.

There was also a ship's pass off the Houston to the same guy.

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