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question on medal bar


cabbell2006
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Hello everyone, i just picked up this mini Naval medal bar and had a question who would have had been awarded these valor medals? the bronze star has a valor device, the commandation has a valor and gold star, the meritorious has a valor device, the purple heart is missing its device, the good conduct has four stars, the vietnam service has four stars.

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Special Warfare or Riverine would be the first ones to come to mind... to a lesser degree it could have also been possible for a SeaBee too I suppose...

 

MW

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Special Warfare or Riverine would be the first ones to come to mind... to a lesser degree it could have also been possible for a SeaBee too I suppose...

 

MW

 

 

Riverine is the first group that comes to mind for Vietnam. I am working up a list of the number of naval personnel who earned both a Silver Star and a Bronze Star in Vietnam. The purple heart list is much more limited pre-1983.

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That's the first NAM I've seen with a Combat "V" which made me suspicious. I had to look it up:

 

"Prior to 4 April 1974, the " V " was authorized for wear on the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, and Navy Achievement Medal."

 

and

 

"Combat Distinguishing Device. The Combat Distinguishing Device was authorized (for the Navy Achievement Medal) for service subsequent to 17 July 1967, and discontinued in April 1974; it was reauthorized on 17 January 1991."

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That's the first NAM I've seen with a Combat "V" which made me suspicious. I had to look it up:

 

"Prior to 4 April 1974, the " V " was authorized for wear on the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, and Navy Achievement Medal."

 

and

 

"Combat Distinguishing Device. The Combat Distinguishing Device was authorized (for the Navy Achievement Medal) for service subsequent to 17 July 1967, and discontinued in April 1974; it was reauthorized on 17 January 1991."

We had a number of NAM's and COM's awarded with a Combat V for Fallujah. I'll post the number of them tomorrow.

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I was thinking maybe a Corpsman; particular to the USMC Recon community?

 

I would date these to the 1970's. Fifth award of the USN Good Conduct Medal and no star on the National Defense Service Medal.

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Here are some (unofficial) quick numbers for Navy enlisted Vietnam era awards:

 

# of USN BS = 90

# of USNR BS = 2

# of USN BV = 4,224

# of USNR BV = 75

# of USN SS = 448

# of USNR SS = 3

 

After filtering out a number of records due to different spellings of name and different service numbers there are 78 possibilities. Assuming that the member only received one of each award rules out 20 with multiple awards and gives us 58 total possibilities. I'll try to come up with some of the ratings tomorrow.

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I was thinking maybe a Corpsman; particular to the USMC Recon community?

 

I would date these to the 1970's. Fifth award of the USN Good Conduct Medal and no star on the National Defense Service Medal.

 

 

I was guessing a senior PO or CPO who was attached to a Marine unit. Just a guess. It would be cool if there were a way to ID the bar based upon the awards.

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My only drawback about it being from a Corpsman (at least attached to the FMF) is that his VSM should have an FMF device on it. Granted, he could have been an HMC attached to a SEAL unit, but all things considered...finding something like that is a 10 to 1 compared to similar racks from the Riverine forces.

 

Dave

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My only drawback about it being from a Corpsman (at least attached to the FMF) is that his VSM should have an FMF device on it. Granted, he could have been an HMC attached to a SEAL unit, but all things considered...finding something like that is a 10 to 1 compared to similar racks from the Riverine forces.

 

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

 

I am new to the US Medals arena; collecting-wise, but when did the EGA FMF device become authorized?

 

Paul

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