US Merchant Marine 1917-19

[PeteS]

Please can anybody tell me if the seamen of the US Merchant Marine received a Victory Medal for convoy service in the war or for service running ammunition and supplies to US forces in Russia in 1919 ? thanks

[joeclown]

I know there was one for WW2 not certain of WW1

[PeteS]

Hi Joe

Yes the US Merchant Marine received a Victory Medal for WW2 and initially only received ribbon bars for their campaign awards, no medals, but I cant find anything definite on WW1.

[senhoragua]

For World War I - if they were members of the United States Naval Reserve Force (these were merchant seamen who were in the employ of the U.S. Navy) - they would get the Victory Medal. Common bars were "Transport" or "Patrol." If they were members of the U.S.S.B. they got not a thing - post-war, the powers that be said it would was too difficult to track everyone down. There were plans to make a Merchant Marine Victory Medal, but it never got past the it is the law-of-the-land phase.

 

A U.S. Naval Reserve Force document group with full (mostly) documentation is here:
http://ianewatts.org/graham-covert

 

Medals from the same individual:

[PeteS]

Thank you for the confirmation.

[SemperParatus]

Although this may not be of any help to you I can say that after some 40 odd years of collecting Merchant Marine material I have never seen any paper work backing up the award of the Victory Medal to a merchant seamen, however it may well have been the case that officers and men who served in the US Navy Reserve did get the Victory Medal based on their service in the reserve. The World War II merchant seamen received the Merchant Marine Victory Medal and some who were also US Naval Reserve also received the Victory Medal as awarded to the Armed Forces as well as the other military medals they may have qualified for. I have noted many groups to the Merchant Marine which include both Merchant Marine awards along with the military awards for the same actions. In most cases these were groups to Kings Point cadets.

[EGA-DOG]

What a great question. Hopefully, others will chime in.