Flea Market WWII Purple Heart

[wildwill]

I picked this up driving home yesterday from visiting the folks.

[Garandomatic]

Holy smokes.. Fall of the Philippines...

Jacque Boulton ID: 19051994
Entered the Service From: California
Rank: Private First Class

Service: U.S. Army Air Forces, 680th Ordnance Company, Aviation

Died: Sunday, May 17, 1942
Buried at: Manila American Cemetery
Location: Fort Bonifacio, Manila, Philippines
Plot: N Row: 12 Grave: 184

[paul kennedy]

Holy smokes is right!

[McDermut99]

Jeez I think I'm in the wrong part of the country when it comes to good flea markets! Excellent find!

[zsmith]

Wow... what a find!

 

 

PFC Jacque Boulton, born in 1920, enlisted in the Air Corps from San Francisco, California on 15 February 1941. He had completed high school in California.

He was assigned to 2nd Platoon, 680th Ordnance Company, (Aviation Pursuit) that was organized and trained at Hamilton Field, California

In October 1941, they moved to Fort McDowel, San Francisco in preparation for embarking for the Philippines, California; sailing from Fort Mason aboard the USAT Tasker H. Bliss, at Fort Mason (This ship had formerally been the SS President Taft) and the USAT Williard A. Holbrook.

They arrived in Manila on 23 October 1941, and were assigned to Nichols Field, with the 24th Pursuit Group

Following the Japanese attack on the Philippines, beginning on 8 , his unit fought as infantry. His unit was taken prisoner on 15 April 1942.

He died as a Prisoner of War on 17 May 1942 at Camp O'Donnell, Luzon, Philippines.

 

 

[smwinter207]

Looks like the right guy. He has no middle initial on the Death Rosters.

[mhalstead1950]

Dang, great piece! Poor guy was killed just six months into the war.

[Blacksmith]

You and me both. However, if I collected Beanie Babies, VHS copies of "The Thornbirds", or broken vacuum cleaners, I'd be in Heaven.

 

Congrats to the OP on a great find.

 

Jeez I think I'm in the wrong part of the country when it comes to good flea markets! Excellent find!

[KurtA]

Another Purple Heart "saved" by a collector who will make sure it is cared for.

[TLeo]

Excellent luck. Congrats! Nothing but junk ever shows up at flea markets around here.

[Dave]

I hate to rain on the parade, but I'm not a fan of the engraving. I'm aware this came from a flea market and as such might be considered as "out of the woodwork" but at the same time, sufficient fakes have made their way through people's hands and later sold at pennies on the dollar, to provide a realistic scenario that this may be one of those.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I did review the 1,400+ photos of Purple Heart engravings that I do have (over 1000 of those are from WW2) just to make sure I wasn't off-base in my assessment.

[Javelin4life]

Something about the engraving just doesn't seem right. I'd have to agree with Dave on this, but I would want others chime in as well.

[KASTAUFFER]

I concur with Dave. The engraving looks a little thin and sloppy to be WWII vintage hand engraving. The Q especially stands out as odd.

 

Kurt

[smwinter207]

My humble opinion, I like it. But I'm new to collecting. There is a man in NC whom I would love to hear from....

[smwinter207]

Maybe a closer photo without the angle will show us the engraving better. I think it looks thin bc of the odd angle.

[Dave]

Here's a comparison between the OP's Purple Heart and a known fake that I keep in my desk drawer, just for this reason. Looking at the two of them, I would say they were even done by the same person (the identify of the faker is known in the case of Leone). Note the misshapen "o"s and the thin engraving overall; identical in their appearance.

[bobgee]

I agree with Dave's analysis. Same engraver. Also I would expect a PH of this early a casualty to be numbered. Now would like to hear a little more about the 'who, what & where of its acquisition. Bobgee

[smwinter207]

I asked the owner where he bought the item(State), but no response yet.

[smwinter207]

I agree with Dave's analysis. Same engraver. Also I would expect a PH of this early a casualty to be numbered. Now would like to hear a little more about the 'who, what & where of its acquisition. Bobgee

I'm not sure how quickly we knew when guys had died while in Camp O'Donnel.

[KASTAUFFER]

Most of the Camp O'Donnell Purple Hearts to POWs who died of disease were not issued until after May 1944. The Japanese issued a list of those POWs in their hands to the Red Cross in 1943, and the POWs whose names were not on the list ( the majority who died in O'Donnell ) had a FOD issued in 1944.

 

All the ones I have seen to POWs who died of disease in O'Donnell are not numbered. I have owned at least 10 myself.

 

I have own/owned 3 Purple Hearts who soldiers who died in the PI in 1941-42 prior to the surrender and they are ALL numbered.

 

Kurt

[Dave]

I hope the owners of these two medals don't mind me posting these up here on the thread (both owners are forum members, and I did photograph these for my book) but here are photos of two Camp O'Donnell KIAs, along with the OP's medal. Both of these medals were quite obviously engraved by the same hand, as the "o"s are very much the same, starting from the bottom center, and then being engraved clockwise.

 

Unfortunately, there are not enough letters in the Boulton example to really compare apples-to-apples with the other two. The "o"s are definitely different, but otherwise, the most common letters to compare them to, such as the "r", isn't present on the other, nor is the presence of a middle initial, which sometimes does, and sometimes doesn't have a period after it. The "q" in "Jacques" is quite odd, and it would be great to compare that to the hand of any other engraver, but I don't have a single one to compare it to.

 

My biggest heartburn is the thinness of the engraving on the Boulton example. I'd be satisfied with either of the other two if I saw them on a table at a show, as to me, it's a known engraving style. Boulton's is close, but not close enough to any that I am 100% confident in to say it's an good engraving style or not, and in fact, it too closely matches a known fake engraving style, which is why I am not a fan.

 

Dave

[doyler]

Can the fake engraving styles be posted for reference?

[jeffs1130]

I'm no engraving expert but here is my May 27, 1942 KIA in the Philippines Purple Heart...

 

This PH is numbered in the 272000 range.

 

 

 

 

[USMCR79]

Guys - I hate to disagree but this Purple Heart would have an honored place in my collection

 

Bill

[smwinter207]

I asked the owner where he bought the item(State), but no response yet.

 

The poster informed me he found it in Missouri. What's interesting is he was born in Colorado and his mom was from MO. They moved to Napa, CA at some point. But I wouldn't be shocked it this medal found it's way to relatives in MO.

 

1940s Census