Gary Cain Posted August 22, 2007 Share #1 Posted August 22, 2007 Hello friends, just as the header states, I need help with this guy. I have exhausted my archive and found nothing. Many thanks for any help you guys can give me! Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Cain Posted August 22, 2007 Author Share #2 Posted August 22, 2007 2 Hello friends, just as the header states, I need help with this guy. I have exhausted my archive and found nothing. Many thanks for any help you guys can give me! Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Cain Posted August 22, 2007 Author Share #3 Posted August 22, 2007 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hudson Posted August 22, 2007 Share #4 Posted August 22, 2007 Without at least a last name, that's going to be next to impossible. I got lucky though on a portrait of a Marine that has been hanging in a local second store (for four years they said). I had been eying it for over a year when, at a local estate sale, I saw a similar sized painting of a woman, in the same style, with the same style signature. I asked the estate sale operator who it was and she said it was her late brother-in-law's wife. "Was he a Marine," I asked? So that's how I found out he was LtCol Thomas R. Belzer who was in the Pacific War and then in China after he war (the painting has Tientsen in the signature). The second hand store (they liquidate estates) had the painting priced at $90 but a while back removed the tag so I thought that when I had a few extra bucks I'd offer them $45. Well, the other day the painting had been removed from the wall to being stacked against furniture on the floor. I asked about it, and the clerk said, "that's been here four years and we need to get rid of it." How much? $18, she said. Had I not stumbled across that estate sale I never would have found out the subject's name (oh and at the sale I paid $10 for a portrait of him b a Marine combat artist on Guam as his 12th Marines were getting ready for Iwo Jima). If your guy was a four striper or above, there might be some slight hope of stumbling across a photo during an extensive web search for Naval aviator photos, but as a Lieutenant Commander you'd really have to get lucky. But you never know. I thought I'd never know that Marine's ID. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Cain Posted August 23, 2007 Author Share #5 Posted August 23, 2007 I'm hoping it won't be impossible. The ribbons should help I just don't have the list of recipients for the banana wars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Leonard Posted August 23, 2007 Share #6 Posted August 23, 2007 Interesting collection on his chest. Wings . . I'll get back to that. Perhaps a NMCEM, okay quite a few issued for service in various expeditions and landings in China, Central America, and the Carribbean areas up through 1931; after that it was only awarded for the Panay Incident in 1937 and for the defense of Wake Island in December 1941 (and Wake's out for this gent, no "W" device). On the other hand, this could be a Mexican Service Medal which was awarded for service on certain ships between 1914 and 1917, mostly in the vicinity of Vera Cruz. Middle first row I cannot really identify, but I suspect it is a poorly rendered Haitian Campaign Medal which was awarded from 1915 to 1920. Obviously the third top row ribbon is the WW One Victory Medal . . . which makes the first, be it MCEM or MSM and a HCM make sense in terms of one's service. The second row also lends some clues, American Defense Service Medal, an Asia Pacific Campaign Medal w/star for 2d campaign, but NO American Campaign Medal, that's a little odd. And then the ringer, a GCM with stars for 2d and 3d awards, err, enlistments. And a Naval Aviator. Here's my guess. You are looking for someone who joined up sometime in early 1914. Served at least one enlistments and then went to flight school and became an NAP. Had at least two other enlistments as an NAP and was probably promoted to Warrant Officer. With the outbreak of WWII, the Navy began commissioning enlisted and warrant NAPs, so this gent probably had a number of years service as a Warrant which meant when commissioned, his commissioned rank was higher. The lack of a WWII victory medal would lead me to believe that this painting was made during the war. My guess is that your man is one of these guys (rank at time designated an aviator. all before the end of August 1921): CMM(A) Chas P. Brenner CMM(A) Kenneth D. Franklin CMM(A)Anthony Iannucci CMM(A) Leo C. Sullivan CMM George N. Tibbetts CMM(A) Jacob W. Utley CMM(A) Thomas P. Wilkinson CMM(A) Francis C. Barb CMM(G) John W. Green CMM(A) Clarence I. Kessler CMM(A) R. B. Lawrence CMM(A) Francis E. Ormsbee CMM(A) Eugene T. Rhoads CMM(A) Bert Strand CMM(A) Harry A. Rossier CMM(A) N. Wayne L. Carleto CCM(A) Chas. I. Elliott CGM(A) Ralph A. Jury CCM(A) Herbert L. Hoobler CE(G) William B. Livingston CQM(A) Owen J. O’Connor CGM George N. Strode CEL(A) Clyde O. Switzer BTSN(A) Lamont C. Fisher CCM(A) Cecil H. Gurley CEL® Claude G. Alexander CGM(A) Henry Brenner CQM(A) William August Clutne CQM Owen J. Darling CCM(A) Garrett H. Gibson BM2c Harvey A. Griesy CEL® Arthur E. LaPorte CGM(A) Cyrus L. Sylvester GM1c(A) W. T. Sweeny CBM Stephen J. Williamson BTSN William L. Buckley MACH William L. Coleman CMM(A) L. E. Crowl CQM(D) Horace M. Finch CBM S. R. Soulby CQM(A) G. K. Wilkinson. CQM(A) Harold H. Karr NM1C(A) Robert E. Lee CBM(A) Edwin Niramaier CQM(A) Francis E. Lovejoy CQM(A) Walter L. Seiler CQM(A) Clarence Woods CE® Claud G. Alexander CMM(A) Francis C. Barb CMM(A) Floyd Bennett CMM(A) Patrick J. Byrne CBM(A) Wayne L. Carleton CQM(A) William A. Cluthe CQM(A) Owen M. Darling CCM(A) Charles I. Elliott CMM(A) Lawrence C. Fisher CMM(A) Kenneth D. Franklin CMM(A) Paul E. Graham BM2C Harvey A. Griesy CCM(A) Herbert L. Hoobler CCM(A) Cecil H. Insley CMM(A) C. I. Kesler CE® Arthur E. LaPorte CMM(A) K. B. Lawrence CQM(A) Owen J. O’Conner CMM(A) Frank E. Ormsbee Ch.Ptr.(A) Allen K. Peterson CMM(A) Eugene S. Rhoads CMM(A) Harry A. Rossier CMM(A) John H. Stinson CMM(A) Leo C. Sullivan CMM(A) George N. Tibbetts CMbl(A) Jacob W. Utley CMM(A) Thomas P. Wilkinson CBM(A) S. J. Williamson CE(G)A John J. Demshock CMM(A) H. T. Baker CMM James W. Buckley CGM William L. Elmore CE(G) Herbert B. Griggs MM1C C. H. Grobe MM1C(A) R. F. Gustafson CMM(A) William F. Hill CMM(A) Willard B. Jackson MM1C(A) C. D. Kirkeby CE Frank M. Linder MM1C N. B. McPeak MM2C E. L. Markham GM1C R. J. Merritt CMM Joseph H. Miller CMM M. C. McLean QM1C Enoch B. McIntosh CMM John J. O’Brien CY Felix F. Preeg CY Charles B. Raney CMM John E. Rawlings MM1C L. W. Stultz CQM(D) Charlie Steelman CMM(A) Frederick J. Tobin ACMM Walter J. Andrews AMM1C Stephen Dunn ACMM Edwin George Frank AMM1C Elliott J. Flynn AMM1C Edward A. Heinz ACMM Herman J. Holdredge ACMM Charley E. Krueger AMM1C Leo G. Muller ACMM Sidney N. Smith CGM Cyrus L. Sylvester ACR John J. Harrigan Hope that narrows it down for you a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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