USMC Mounted Group Opinions Please

[Tom Nier]

Just for grins, I pulled out Blakeney's roster of WW2 LOM awards. I had previiously counted 608 total LOM recipients for WW2. Going over her list again, 92 of these Marines were awarded more than one LOM, including both Navy & Army additional awards. So that leaves 516 Marines who earned a single LOM. Correlating these 516 names against Blakeney's NC, SSM, & DFC lists will eliminate some more candidates. Checking the remaining short list for KIAs & MIAs by1946 may reduce it further, as will checking for pre-WW2 active duty.

 

You can see this is a slow process, but your interest will grow as the list of candidates narrows down.

[firefighter]

Just for grins, I pulled out Blakeney's roster of WW2 LOM awards. I had previiously counted 608 total LOM recipients for WW2. Going over her list again, 92 of these Marines were awarded more than one LOM, including both Navy & Army additional awards. So that leaves 516 Marines who earned a single LOM. Correlating these 516 names against Blakeney's NC, SSM, & DFC lists will eliminate some more candidates. Checking the remaining short list for KIAs & MIAs by1946 may reduce it further, as will checking for pre-WW2 active duty.

 

You can see this is a slow process, but your interest will grow as the list of candidates narrows down.

 

 

How many received a LOM w/ 'V' device? I'm sure not a lot of them.

[Brig]

The Purple Heart appears to be an Army contract medal. Not unusual though.

 

Kurt

Esp when the PH was earned in Korea rather than WWII. I have a mounted bar to a Marine who was in WWII and Korea, and earned both his Hearts in Korea. Not sure if it's an Army contracted or not, guess I should post and find out from you medals guys

[usmedalman]

Finding out who this bar belonged to was not an easy task, but after nearly 100 hours of research I think I have a winner. First, I whittled Blakeney's WWII and Korea rolls down to 128 candidates by cross referencing those who only received one LoM and no other decorations (Blakeney does not list BSMs or Purple Hearts so I had to go to the Military Times Hall of Valor site to check those off). One by one, the 128 potential candidates dropped off the list as they were crossed with potential 1st China Service and a single Purple Heart. In the end, only Colonel Hewitt Dayne Adams, USNA '37 was left. Bill, USMCR79, also tipped me off to look at the possibility of earlier campaign medals and that eliminated several would be contenders -- thanks Bill.

 

After all was said and done, Adams was the only officer, Navy or Marine, to meet all the necessary criteria: a single LoM w/V and no other decorations, a single Purple Heart, China Service (1st and 2nd periods of award) but no other pre-WWII era campaign medals, American Defense Medal, Asia-Pacific Campaign with only one star (he was with C/1/8 Marines at Guadalcanal), no post-WWII service in the occupation of Japan, Korean War service, and sufficient post-Korea service to be awarded the UN medal.

 

I also discovered some interesting things during this project that I would like to share. First, Hewitt's LoM is for actions from 21NOV52 to 29APR53 and my first thought was that it must have been for staff work in Japan or something. However, when I read the citation on the Military Times Hall of Valor site, it was awarded with a "V" device. Previously I would have said this would not be possible, but I ran across several LoMs w/V (both awarded during WWII and Korea) that were for service spanning several months. And, like Hewitt's award, most of these showed the recipient was wounded during the time frame of the award (Hewitt was wia on 4MAR53).

 

I found more than one Colonel who retired in the 1955 to 1962 time frame who received a Navy Commendation Medal as a retirement award, which astounded me. Just goes to show that the new award was pretty special back then.

 

By cross referencing all the recipients with the officer rolls for 1937 to 39, I also discovered that USMC officer service numbers greater than 05875 +/- 10 were post-1939 and originally I thought the number was much lower than that.

 

I also learned a lot about the China Marines during this 1937-39 period, really up to 1941, and it is very interesting. Hewitt reported to the US Embassy in late August 1939 as a fresh faced 2LT, just ten days before the eligibility period for the China Service Medal ended, and he did not leave until 19 JUN 1941. So, he was one of the first American's to witness first hand the way Japanese waged war.

 

Although I am confidant that Adams is the bars recipient, I cannot account for the lack of the KSM and the NDSM. Except, I don't think you can fit 9 medals on a single bar and perhaps he wanted to wear the UN medal but did not want to add a second row of medals.

 

All in all this project was a great experience, but I am not all that anxious to do it again any time soon.

[kanemono]

That has been a very interesting research project. Great job.

Dick

[Brig]

Fantastic detective work...I have a few myself to whittle down, but need to find a copy of Blakeney's first

[bobgee]

Outstanding research! His OQR may reveal some more confirming info. Bobgee

[Teamski]

Awesome detective work! Gotta love it. Well done.

 

-Ski

[Reforger]

Just saw this. Great medals and great research!