ROTC Medals

[Fred Borgmann]

In all my years of military medal collecting the possibility of interesting ROTC related medals never occurred to me until I ran into this pair of medals. Both medals are named to George Virgil Guisleman who I believe was a California native, born 1907 and died 1996, and was a student at Washington State College from 1929-1932.

 

The first medal, dated 1929 is a 10k gold medal 29.5mm wide and 43mm tall weighing in at 13.99 grams without the ribbon and broach. This medal has an Actual Gold Weight (AGW) of .1874 oz which when multiplied by the price of gold per ounce would give you the actual melt value. With the high gold prices of today collectors should always be aware of the AGW of their gold medals when selling to prevent some vulture from making a fast buck by scraping medals that were sold too cheap.

Obverse has a finely detailed heraldic American Eagle above two crossed ‘03 Springfield Rifles with “ROTC” at the top and “WSC” on the bottom.

Reverse is engraved “CADET PRIVATE // G. VIRGIL GUISLEMAN // GENERAL WEYRAUCH // MEDAL // BEST DRILLED FRESHMAN // 1929” and has an unattributed hallmark at the bottom.

The original red and gray ribbon consists of two narrow red and gray ribbons sewn together and has a full wrap broach.

 

Brigadier General Weyrauch must have been a wealth community leader in Walla Walla. The first mention of him that I could find is as a Second Lieutenant with the 14th Cavalry at the Fort Leavenworth Infantry and Cavalry School in 1907. Then in 1915 he was named President of the Blue Mountain Road Association in Walla Walla. With the US entry into WWI he was promoted to Brig. Gen. and made the training officer at Fort Walla Walla for the 146th and 147th Field Artillery Brigades.

 

The second medal is a marksmanship prize medal from the 1932 US National Match.

This round gold colored medal is 35mm in diameter and is on the original red, white and blue ribbon suspended from a broach inscribed “US NATIONAL MATCH 1932”. On the ribbon are two bars inscribed “SENIOR R.O.T.C.” and “GALLERY”.

The medal obverse has an American Eagle above two crossed ‘03 Springfield Rifles above a rounded “US” and the legend “NATIONAL INTERCOLLEGIATE TEAM MATCH”.

The reverse has the name “GEORGE V. GUISLEMAN” engraved across the center.

 

Both medals are in the for sale section but I thought the story should also be here for those who aren't just looking for stuff to buy.