Cutdown Uniform of 28th Infantry Division Major General Edward Martin for Review

[THAT GUY]

I recently purchased this cut down 4 pocket belonging to Major General Edward Martin at a flea market. Some fellow collectors had concern over the ribbon bar due to its differing amount of wear. Can anyone hear help give it a thumbs up or down? Another concern was the lack of all his state ribbons. 

 

I have attached an oil painting I have found online of him and it appears to be the same dress uniform, only cut down. This Ike matches what would have been a full length uniform, including old marks where the U.S. insignia was affixed parallel to the ground. The ribbons are all sewn on individually.

 

Also, this uniform was tailored for MG Martin in 1940 which would explain his felt 28th SSI.

 

Thank you all in advance.

 

Sam

 

 

 

[KASTAUFFER]

Those are pre-war screwback stars.  Nothing seems like a huge red flag to me . The wear on the ribbons could be explained based on the type of ribbon. Those 2 ribbons generally dont wear well.  It was obviously a 4 pocket jacket he had tailored down into an Ike. If you got this "cheap " at a flea market, I would feel good about it. 

 

Kurt

[BEAT_NAVY]

The one ribbon, Army service medal, can only have a maximum of five stars on it. Yours has six. I am not a expert but from what i know i believe that somethings wrong there. 

[BEAT_NAVY]

though i would take Kurts word over mine

2 minutes ago, KASTAUFFER said:

Those are pre-war screwback stars.  Nothing seems like a huge red flag to me . The wear on the ribbons could be explained based on the type of ribbon. Those 2 ribbons generally dont wear well.  It was obviously a 4 pocket jacket he had tailored down into an Ike. If you got this "cheap " at a flea market, I would feel good about it. 

 

Kurt

 

[THAT GUY]

19 minutes ago, KASTAUFFER said:

Those are pre-war screwback stars.  Nothing seems like a huge red flag to me . The wear on the ribbons could be explained based on the type of ribbon. Those 2 ribbons generally dont wear well.  It was obviously a 4 pocket jacket he had tailored down into an Ike. If you got this "cheap " at a flea market, I would feel good about it. 

 

Kurt

 Kurt,

 

Thank you for chiming in here. Does the different type of ribbon arrangement give you any pause? I have been searching photos of him everywhere and 1. cannot find this Ike Jacket, and 2. cannot find this type of ribbon arrangement without the state awards. 

 

And yes, I was quite lucky in how much this was.

 

Sam

[KASTAUFFER]

A "silver star" on a WWI Victory ribbon denoted the 'Silver Citation Star" which equaled the Silver Star medal. It does not surprise me he wore the 6 campaign stars. 

 

Finding him wearing a jacket in a photo match would be ideal. 

 

My assumption is that he is wearing a 4 pocket in the painting and it was done earlier than the re-tailoring of the Ike. If he was in federal service while wearing the Ike, he may have chosen not to wear the state awards. Just a guess.

 

Kurt

[KurtA]

Looks just fine to me. Great pickup 

[36thIDAlex]

I don’t see any problems with it honestly. Like Kurt said if it was cheap and at a place like that then it kind of removes anyones incentive to try and fake or add ribbons. Echoing his other statement, I’ve had those types of ribbons before and they’re notorious for wearing like that, but usually only start once some of the thread has been nicked or starts unraveling. Based on yours Im guessing that happened to a few but not all of them and thus caused imbalanced conditions. 
 

As for the state awards I’d also agree, lots of generals in WWII had prior state service but I haven’t seen many wearing those ribbons on wartime jackets. My guess is he took them off while serving in that capacity, given it’s a cutdown and the other ribbons (WWII victory for example) I’m going to guess this is the one he wore for the war itself and then right after, thus likely not putting back on that row of state awards. 

[FriarChuck]

I agree with Kurt, you see lots of WWI Victory with more than 5 or 6 bronze campaign stars. I find his overseas/wound chevrons interesting. The jacket matches the painting so nothing wrong there. But it seems if the single chevron is the wound chevron he’s wearing it backwards. I know they moved overseas bars to the other arm during WWII but then shouldn’t he have just removed the wound chevron, especially since he was now wearing his Purple Hearts. Either way a really neat pick up.

 

Also, I feel like the Cuban Pacification Medal black had to be some of the worst ribbon dye in terms of longevity. I feel like  that ribbon is almost always faded horribly if it’s a period piece.

 

Friar

[Acollecter17]

Bump