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"Dug" Dog tag of Jonah E Kelley MOH recipient


mmerc20
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Ok. I wanted to see what everyone thought of this. This is the dug dog tag of Jonah E Kelley the medal of honor recipient of the 311th Infantry Regt, 89th Inf Div.

 

His citation reads:

 

In charge of the leading squad of Company E, he heroically spearheaded the attack in furious house-to-house fighting. Early on 30 January, he led his men through intense mortar and small arms fire in repeated assaults on barricaded houses. Although twice wounded, once when struck in the back, the second time when a mortar shell fragment passed through his left hand and rendered it practically useless, he refused to withdraw and continued to lead his squad after hasty dressings had been applied. His serious wounds forced him to fire his rifle with 1 hand, resting it on rubble or over his left forearm. To blast his way forward with hand grenades, he set aside his rifle to pull the pins with his teeth while grasping the missiles with his good hand. Despite these handicaps, he created tremendous havoc in the enemy ranks. He rushed l house, killing 3 of the enemy and clearing the way for his squad to advance. On approaching the next house, he was fired upon from an upstairs window. He killed the sniper with a single shot and similarly accounted for another enemy soldier who ran from the cellar of the house. As darkness came, he assigned his men to defensive positions, never leaving them to seek medical attention. At dawn the next day, the squad resumed the attack, advancing to a point where heavy automatic and small arms fire stalled them. Despite his wounds, S/Sgt. Kelley moved out alone, located an enemy gunner dug in under a haystack and killed him with rifle fire. He returned to his men and found that a German machinegun, from a well-protected position in a neighboring house, still held up the advance. Ordering the squad to remain in comparatively safe positions, he valiantly dashed into the open and attacked the position single-handedly through a hail of bullets. He was hit several times and fell to his knees when within 25 yards of his objective; but he summoned his waning strength and emptied his rifle into the machinegun nest, silencing the weapon before he died. The superb courage, aggressiveness, and utter disregard for his own safety displayed by S/Sgt. Kelley inspired the men he led and enabled them to penetrate the last line of defense held by the enemy in the village of Kesternich

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Ok. So as to not mislead anyone that I stumbled upon his actual tag, this was originally one of many blank dog tags recovered from the Camp Butner finds a long with the many other named tags I am currently cataloging. In the spirit of the 89th Division who passed through the gates here, I felt the need to experiment with one of the blanks and our dog tag machine at the unit. It's scary how real it looks and if someone didn't know what WWII era tag fonts look like compared to modern fonts, it could really fool someone.

 

I made a few of them and just guessed on the religious preference. I left the blood type off since I have no idea. It is obviously not made to deceive and was just a curiosity. I will be marking the reverse to distinguish it from the real thing. Just to be safe.

 

Mike

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Wow that is amazing. Is his medal in a museum somewhere? Might be worth loaning this to be with the medal if it is. Sobering to think he was wearing this in is action against the enemy. Well you fooled me :crying:

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Great, the creation of more fake junk to muddy the collecting waters and offer more opportunities to be ripped off. It's like the so-called upgrading, completing or restoring of uniforms and adding missing medals to documented groups. Once it leaves the original collector's hands all documentation that they were jacked up is lost. Too many collectors have no trouble diong this and then moan and groan when they discover they have been sold a similar bill of goods on down the road.

 

I feel better now for having posted this. I point no fingers. It's just my general cynical observation.

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Isn't this what they've been doing in Vietnam for a while? I've heard that they have been churning out fake dogtags for the last decade or so.

 

I will admit that if I saw this tag at a show, I'd get pretty darned excited over it... scary...

 

Dave

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"Ok. I wanted to see what everyone thought of this. This is the dug dog tag of Jonah E Kelley the medal of honor recipient of the 311th Infantry Regt, 89th Inf Div."

 

While I don't believe you had any malicious intent when you created this FAKE DUG TAG named to a MOH recipient.......your verbiage in the the thread title and this statement is clearly deceptive to Forum members who come upon it. IMHO you need to edit both to show up front that this tag is a FAKE. Semper Fi.......Bobgee

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suwanneetrader

I hope you do as you say and stamp (not with ink but impressed into the metal) on ALL the FAKES that they are just that. Richard

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Ahhhh....

 

but it is a fake. You stamped it off-center and on the wrong side of the tag. Meaning someone used a modern machine without the notch alignment mark. :thumbdown:

 

Personally, I would not dabble in things like this due to the can of worms it eventually opens.

Good intentions sometimes fall into the hands of the wrong people....thats all folks here are worried about.

 

There are ways of determining tetanus dates and religion...but I won't discuss those here

 

So, mark it fake with a dremel or something on the back, and enjoy it for what it is.

I'm off to shoot some civil war belt buckles with my musket...later guys. :D

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I've taken care of the title, I believe the edit is sufficient.

 

I, for one, don't mind "demonstration" threads...it gives people good caution about what can be done to deceive. If people aren't educated on the fakes and how they are created, then they will go on buying them...and that's unacceptable in my book.

 

Dave

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I never imagined this would have drawn so many negative comments. If I knew I never would have posted. Like Dave said, this is a sort of demonstration thread but also was dreamt up from the current excavated dog tag project I am doing: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=149102 ://http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/for...owtopic=149102

 

The reason I chose Mr Kelley was because he passed through the gates of Camp Butner and that is where this project comes from. To think this is going to "muddy" the collecting waters is absurd. These tags will never pass outside my hands or the future museum hands and Baron is exactly right. It has been marked on the reverse with my dremel.

 

Obviously nothing good can come of this thread and I request that the moderators just delete it. I am sorry to have created so many angry forum members. That was certainly not my intention. I hope that this does not change peoples thoughts about me.

 

I do intend to post some real tags of some great americans that made the "utimate sacrifice" nearly 70 years ago. So far, I have spent around 26 hours of my own time cataloging the real tags and researching each and every name. I probably have 20 or 30 more hours of work to put into this.

 

Respectfully,

 

Mike

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These "Demonstration" threads seldom have the positive effect they are intended to have. :unsure:

That's why I made my comment......most of us knew you were trying to demonstrate a point, not muddy the waters!! :thumbsup:

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I never imagined this would have drawn so many negative comments. If I knew I never would have posted. Like Dave said, this is a sort of demonstration thread but also was dreamt up from the current excavated dog tag project I am doing: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=149102 ://http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/for...owtopic=149102 ://http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/for...owtopic=149102

 

The reason I chose Mr Kelley was because he passed through the gates of Camp Butner and that is where this project comes from. To think this is going to "muddy" the collecting waters is absurd. These tags will never pass outside my hands or the future museum hands and Baron is exactly right. It has been marked on the reverse with my dremel.

 

Obviously nothing good can come of this thread and I request that the moderators just delete it. I am sorry to have created so many angry forum members. That was certainly not my intention. I hope that this does not change peoples thoughts about me.

 

I do intend to post some real tags of some great americans that made the "utimate sacrifice" nearly 70 years ago. So far, I have spent around 26 hours of my own time cataloging the real tags and researching each and every name. I probably have 20 or 30 more hours of work to put into this.

 

Respectfully,

 

Mike

 

Mike,

 

Actually been following your work admiringly on that thread. I am very surprised at how many tags you found. Keep posting them! If you want to photo a few together and post them up, I'd even help with research (as would a lot of other people). We all see something like that tag as honoring, but to someone else, its an idea for a quick buck on ebay....while using provenance of an MoH recipient. That's what caused us to :blink: .

Best of luck with the project, and please let us help if we can!

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That's why I made my comment......most of us knew you were trying to demonstrate a point, not muddy the waters!! :thumbsup:

Yes, all those all knowing, all seeing folks out there will certainly know that. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

Look at how many items, both real and of dubious origin, from museums end up in collector's hands. Absurd, indeed. It should have been noted right up front that a fake was created for demonstration purposes. I'm pleased (not that it really matters what pleases me) that it is marked. I see so many collectors post on this forum about how they "improved" or "corrected" original uniforms that much suspicion can be cast on what becomes available.

 

mmerc20 is right. Time to shut this one down.

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Yes, all those all knowing, all seeing folks out there will certainly know that. Thanks for pointing it out.

No need for sarcasm!

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