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Dating a NAVY/USMC Purple Heart


Bob Hudson
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This has a split brooch and no engraving. The picker told me it was from a Vietnam veteran but is it a WWII leftover?

 

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8 minutes ago, 0811gysgt said:

Yes, theMarine Corps was still awarding these in the 1960’s.

Do you know when they started issuing this style?

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This is known as a "Type 1" US Mint Purple Heart awarded to USN and USMC personnel.  According to Dave Schwind's excellent  book, "Sacrifice Remembered", engraved Type 1s were awarded first awarded in 1942 for 1941 and 1942 casualties.

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2 minutes ago, swabbie said:

This is known as a "Type 1" US Mint Purple Heart awarded to USN and USMC personnel.  According to Dave Schwind's excellent  book, "Sacrifice Remembered", engraved Type 1s were awarded first awarded in 1942 for 1941 and 1942 casualties.

 

Thanks for that info. Dave has been a moderator here for a million years so we owe him a link  to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Sacrifice-Remembered-Posthumous-Awards-Purple/dp/0979284910

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I didn't know they still issued these in this case for Vietnam... wow.   Learn something new.

 

I had heard that our surplus of Purple Hearts was due to the planned invasion of Japan that never happened ... so we had WWII Purple Hearts issued through the Korean and Vietnam Wars until they were depleted.  If that is not accurate correct me.

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That's especially true for Army contract PHs.  It's interesting that some T1s remained in the system into Vietnam (see 0811gysgt's comment).  There were T2 and T3 follow-on contracts because the Navy/Marine Corps required many more that exceeded the T1 contract.  My memory is not as good as it once was but that's my recollection.

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Who knows at what position it sat on a shelf only to skipped over many times before being grabbed out of the storeroom. 

You would expect more the short titled boxed USN/USMC Type II...you will see those more often.

Never say never...

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