Col James McHugh group, WW2 Navy Intelligence and OSS

[Geoff]

About 6 years ago a friend of mine, who works at a local Marine Corps League office, gave me a call. An elderly lady had just dropped off two boxes of insignia from her deceased husband's uniform (the lady said that the uniforms were burned after her husband's death! Drats!!). Anyway, my friend didn't know what to do with the insignia so she called me and asked if I wanted it. Of course I said sure! The lady included a hand-written note that gave her husband's name, James M. McHugh, date of graduation from the US Naval Academy (1922), and that was all the information that came with the insignia.

 

There were two sets of officer's dress uniform EGAs made by H&H, a visor EGA, two sets of sterling silver colonel's eagles, two sets of dress uniform buttons, and four sets of ribbons. The insignia came in two boxes from H&H, probably his original insignia boxes from WW2 or earlier. There were no combat ribbons, so I put everything away planning to do some research on him later. Just last week I noticed the boxes sitting on a storage shelf, so I decided to do some long-overdue research, and what I found amazed me!

 

James M. McHugh was born in 1900 in Missouri. He entered the US Naval Academy in 1918 and graduated in 1922, choosing the Marine Corps. In 1924 he was sent to the 4th Marines in Peking, China, beginning an almost 20 year association with China. He became a Chinese language expert, and was noticed by US Naval Intelligence. While at the US Legation in Peking, he met and married the US Ambassador's daughter Dorothy Schurman (ambassador Jacob Gould Schurman). Through the late 1920's and early 1930's he was assigned increasing intelligence duties in China, and in 1936 he served as the Naval Intelligence Officer on the staff of the Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet , based in Shanghai, China. In 1940 he was appointed as the personal representative of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, having already become close friends with Chiang and his wife in his intelligence duties. His position with Chiang Kai-shek continued until mid- 1943, when he was promoted to full colonel and reassigned to Planning Staff of the Marine Fifth Amphibious Corps. As part of the VAC he helped with initial planning of the invasion of Iwo Jima. Sometime in 1944 he was reassigned to the OSS, where he remained for the remainder of the war.

 

His decorations include the Legion of Merit for his role as Knox's representative to Chiang Kai-shek (I did not get that ribbon with his other insignia, unfortunately); the WW1 Victory Medal, the Marine Expeditionary Medal, the Yangtze Service Medal, the China Service Medal, the American Defense Medal with Star, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and WW2 Victory Medal (ribbon not present with his insignia).

[Geoff]

Here's a close-up of one of his cap EGAs, a set of his dress uniform collar EGAs by H&H, his colonel's insignia, and one set of his ribbons that were sewn directly to his uniform. (I don't know the order of precedence for the top row - might have gotten that backwards)

[Geoff]

Here is a close-up of one of the H&H insignia boxes that came with the group. Col McHugh left the service in 1946, so these H&H insignia boxes date to WW2 or pre-war.

[American Heritage]

very, very nice Geoff! As you already know, I really enjoy seeing OSS and Naval Intelligence - and this group combines the 2!

 

And the Yangtze ribbon seems to be a really rare find too as we discussed.

[Dirk]

Sorry I missed seeing this one back in October. A very nice grouping. McHugh had quite a run in China having a variety of assignments over there....I believe he ran afoul of the Army at the start of WWII and his career never really recovered. I believe he and his second wife, who was a prominent journalist owned a famous estate in Maryland. He spent the final years of his life writing about the Far East.

[American Heritage]

Hi Geoff,

 

got the idea to take a photo of the screen and upload it to your thread to help document this fine Marine.

 

He he is from the 1922 USNA yearbook:

[ww2relichunter]

wow it funny how things come up sometimes but very neat little grouping with a lot of history behind it !!

[jamiensf]

Hi Geoff

i was tracking down some information on my grandfather, Col James McHugh, and found this page...

 

He had 2 sons, my father, James Jr and George Michael - my dad dies in 2012, and Uncle Mike died before him, around 2006 - it must have been Uncle Mike's wife, Tucker, who gave the insignia to your friend at the Marine Corps League office

 

naturally, it is surprising that Tucker did not give these mementos to her 2 sons! or to pass them onto our branch of the family...

 

Col McHugh is buried in Arlington Cemetery alongside his second wife Maxine Davis, and his papers are at Cornell University

 

http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM02770.html

 

Hope you find this useful!