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Returning named Air Force medals?


Vincennes
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Is there a group that specializes in returning named Air Force medals to the family?

 

Recently at the flea market I bought an Air Force Commendation Medal, ribbon, and mini ribbon in a presentation box with Meritorious Service Medal and ribbon also laid in the box. Both medals have the name J. E. Wooley engraved on the reverse. I would like to return them to him or his family if I can.

 

Paul

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I've not heard of such a group. If you can find the name of the vet, you might be able to track his family down through an obituary or something similar. Just be forewarned that sometimes these things backfire...only pursue returning them if you are willing to take the negative with the good.

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I purchased a WWI vintage Purple Heart / Bronze Star group many years ago. It was my first named group. After considerable effort, I learned that the veteran had died 12 years prior, but I did manage to make contact with his oldest son, was was 66 at the time.

 

When I told him who I was, and what I had, and that I wanted to return these items to the family, his exact words to me were "I got rid of that junk many years ago". He then hung up.

 

I don't know what the relationship was between father and son, but I felt so bad about it that I sold the group, and never collected another named medal group again.

 

Be prepared for a possible unpleasant situation.

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Sometimes it is better to preserve them yourself and remember his service than to give them back to someone who will re-sell them or get rid of them again.

 

Kurt

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Flea markets, antique stores, garage sales, estate sales, thrift shops, pawn stores, etc. are full of named and un-named medals. Most are there for a reason, and it's not because the family or even the veteran wanted to keep them.

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i agree w those above . Unfortunately not all family members are happy to have collectors come asking around. Without getting into the other medal debate I would never seek out any family for stuff i find on the open market as stated more often than not it probably found its way 2 market from a family member

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Apparently a lot of people have had negative feedback from trying to return medals to the family. But I have had just the opposite results. I have reunited dozens of dog tags, medals, photo scrapbooks, diaries, etc. to family members and never had a discouraging result. Most people were excited and happy to get the material back. Only one person refused a dog tag & medal group return. He told me I could keep them, but he was proud of his Fathers service and had even recorded an interview with his Father about his WWII service before the Father died. And he sent me a copy of that interview to go with the dog tags and medals I already had from his Father.

 

So don't always expect the worst. A lot of this kind of material is from estate sales where the rest of the family may be from out of town and they simply hire someone to sell off the estate not knowing what is in it. I had one incident where the wife of a WWII vet had stored the material in a u-store-it unit and then developed Alzheimer's and forgot about it. When she did not pay for the storage it was sold. Her son was very happy to get the material back from me.

 

Paul

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No worries...it was more of a "be forewarned" than anything.

As far as the recipient, in a quick search on ancestry and genealogybank, I couldn't find anyone that was an Air Force veteran who matched those initials, but you may have better luck figuring it out knowing the local area it came out of.

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In my experience, it's been half and half. A lot of guys don't have fond memories of their service, and a lot of families would rather get rid of the military stuff they have. Recently however, some WW2 veteran's paperwork was found in a desk that was sold at auction and the family was happy to have it back because they did not know it was in there.

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  • 1 month later...
Battling Bastard

Interesting discussion on good and bad experiences in returning named items. This is the reason why I dont like named items in my collection specially dog tags, because I beleive in researching the owner and its descendants so I could return it. Some might not want it back, but it is always a good thing to try because others will gladly want it back in the family even at a cost.

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