Grouping to Lt. George Veed, USN, 1899-1926

[wolventm]

 

A few years ago when I was at MCB Pendleton, I went to Chula Vista on the weekend to see a friend. She wasn't home so I walked through the old downtown and passed a "little old lady" antique store, with a window full of vintage clothing and depression glass. With time to kill, I wanted inside. I saw a jewelry case with medals in it, a WWII Victory, current Navy GCM, and an NDSM, as well as two mounted groups. I asked the owner how much they were since nothing was marked. She said "Big medals are $10 and little medals $5." That's the way I like to buy medals. She also offered to cut off any ones I did not want. I asked her if anything else came in with those and bought the large and miniature groups. She said yes, she had his sword (which was named and attributed the group to Lt. George Veed, USN enlisted 1899, warranted 1907, commissioned 1918 and retired 1926. She also had his "amulets" (she meant epaulettes). I bought everything for $200.

 

New collectors - always ask at Flea Markets and Antique stores if anything else came in with the item you are interested in. Quite often the dealers have other things from the same source.

 

Medals are: Phillipine Cpn 31, Cuban Pacification 959, Mexico 10249, Haiti 973, Santo Domingo 231, WWI Victory.

[Brig]

absolutely beautiful! you lucky SOB!

[wolventm]

absolutely beautiful! you lucky SOB!

Glad you appreciate the group. I thought someone would comment on the mounting, whichis backwards from the way it is done today, as you will note, the entire ribbon of the last medal on the right is fully shown covering the others, as opposed to today when the lst medal ribbon on the left would be fully exposed. I believe this was correct for naval mountings of the period as I have seen photos of similarly mounted.

 

I also hit the jackpot with obtaining the service record. Normally, enlisted records are much more difficult than officers, particularly pre WWII. In this case, a question had come up about LT. Veed's pension, and an entire copy of his enlisted record, from first enlistment papers up till receiving his warrant in 1907 was made for BUPERS in 1942, and placed with his officer's jacket. His enlisted service is much better documented than his officer's time (which can always be reconstructed by lineal lists without even having the record).

 

His group does not include the Italian Messina Earthquake medal, and he is not on the list of recipients, though he was a crewman at the time on the USS Celtic which participated in the disaster relief (1908). That would have made it a very fascinating group.

 

Obviously, this was a high caliber sailor, you did not enlist and make warrant in 8 years in the old navy without being exceptional. He was warranted from PO1, and his file had correspondence about whether he should have been advanced to CPO first because he had passed the exam, but rather than advance him briefly to CPO, his WO status was being processed so he went PO1 to WO1. The file revealed one more interesting aspect for medal collectors : Why no good conduct? I found a rating sheet for one period where an officer rated him down to 3.0 on attention to duty, which ruined his average for that one period, and he missed his GCM. He had not served an entire qualifying period the next time he was eligible because he was warranted first.

 

GySgt, USMCRR

[ADMIN]

I think I could double your money for you!

[Bob Hudson]

I live next to Pendleton in Oceanside and about once a month I drive down to Chula Vista (went to high school there) as part of my rounds to check thrift stores throughout San Diego County: I'm going to have go look for that little old lady antique store next week. About the best I've done in Chula Vista so far was a 1916 EGA for $15. When I was a kid that town was full of military, mostly Navy, and still has lots of retirees so you never know what's going to crop up.

[wolventm]

I live next to Pendleton in Oceanside and about once a month I drive down to Chula Vista (went to high school there) as part of my rounds to check thrift stores throughout San Diego County: I'm going to have go look for that little old lady antique store next week. About the best I've done in Chula Vista so far was a 1916 EGA for $15. When I was a kid that town was full of military, mostly Navy, and still has lots of retirees so you never know what's going to crop up.

Glad you brought that up, I meant to leave that as a suggestion to new collectors. In searching, things can and do turn up anywhere. But, areas around military installations in the south and California have clusters of retirees, so things turn up more frequently.

Another time I was in a coin shop in Chula Vista and found the old model USMC SNCO buckle (with flattened EGA and pebbled background under the wreath). It was in a junk coin bowl - price $2.

By the way, the epaulets with this group were the gold fringed full dress in a black tin box. In the center of the box was a raised area that contained his dress sword belt. The store lady did not even know that was in there.