36thIDAlex Posted June 23, 2022 Share #1 Posted June 23, 2022 Excited to share my latest group in my 36th ID focus, a fantastic one to Edward Fiedler, a rifleman of A Company, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division. Fiedler hailed from Detroit, Michigan and worked alongside his father in a Chevrolet factory as a draftsman prior to being drafted himself in early 1944. He went through basic at Fort Sheridan and Camp Wheeler prior to going overseas where he was assigned to his combat unit on 7 December 1944. His arrival to the 36th was somewhat chaotic as he was brought up in a jeep right as his company was engaged in heavy combat in Riquewihr in the Vosges. Told to turn in his helmet and rifle, Fiedler and one of his close buddies were given medic cross-painted lids and a stretcher being told to act as litter bearers for the severely injured 1st Battalion. They retained this role for nearly a week, working day and night to drag wounded GIs and Germans from the city streets and fields as the final German push to keep the 36th off the Alsatian Plain rolled to a halt. Afterward he returned to his rifleman duties and continued on with the division pushing across the Moder, the Rhine, and into Germany itself. Find his full story here: https://www.36thdivisionarchive.com/pa-36-fiedler In all it’s a fantastic group with some really stellar pieces. The highlight of course is what I believe to be a private purchase ike jacket (made of a finer wool material than most you see) that features regimental DUIs, theater made sewn ribbons, and a fantastic German-made T-Patch. Also included are various photos and souvenirs from his time in the 36th including two Chenille-style patches, his dog tags, and a replacements welcome pamphlet he would’ve received upon joining the division in December 1944. From his postwar service is a painting of him in his civilian worker uniform and his East-West Germany travel pass from 1947 among other things. Very excited to have this set in the collection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manayunkman Posted June 23, 2022 Share #2 Posted June 23, 2022 Exquisite presentation. Love his attention to his ribbon bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSkaggs29 Posted July 8, 2022 Share #3 Posted July 8, 2022 That patch is beautiful!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
25thid Posted July 12, 2022 Share #4 Posted July 12, 2022 What a beautiful 36th patch! Never seen one quite like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niner Alpha Posted July 13, 2022 Share #5 Posted July 13, 2022 The ribbon bars look to be out of place. The bottom bar should probably be on top. The Bronze star would be the first in the row on top. The red and black is an occupation bar and the multicolor with the yellow is a war victory badge are bottom row awards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
36thIDAlex Posted July 14, 2022 Author Share #6 Posted July 14, 2022 Thanks all for the comments! @25thid the patch is a really great one, its a fairly difficult to find German made variant, I've never seen one on a uniform and only a few others in the wild so I'm excited to grab it. @Niner Alpha the ribbon bars are out of order however the veteran had them sewn onto the uniform like that. I'm guessing it was a tailor mix-up or he simply had the second bar made later and added on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manayunkman Posted November 7, 2022 Share #7 Posted November 7, 2022 On 7/13/2022 at 1:49 PM, Niner Alpha said: The ribbon bars look to be out of place. The bottom bar should probably be on top. The Bronze star would be the first in the row on top. The red and black is an occupation bar and the multicolor with the yellow is a war victory badge are bottom row awards. Quite often WW2 vets wore their ribbons out of order. In fact it might be more common than not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niner Alpha Posted November 7, 2022 Share #8 Posted November 7, 2022 44 minutes ago, manayunkman said: Quite often WW2 vets wore their ribbons out of order. In fact it might be more common than not. It could have been that way. Probably the army didn't give them an order of importance list of decorations for their dress uniforms or told them that was the way to do it. Vietnam veterans from my time, half a century ago, and two decades or more after WWII, weren't given any instructions, although when you see pictures of career soldiers in dress uniform from any era they seemed to have all been clued in to the official proper way to pin them on. I wonder about "sewn on" in the comment by the poster. Medals came with pin on ribbon bars going back as far as I'm familiar. Later day solders bought display ribbons that would fit on bars that would group them together on a uniform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manayunkman Posted November 7, 2022 Share #9 Posted November 7, 2022 There are tailors mostly in Japan and Germany that would embroider ribbon bars and then sewn it on your jacket like a patch. There are some men who have the ribbons sewn individually to the jacket. You are correct that many knew how set up their ribbons, there are however many who didn’t. Many members here have found jackets directly from vets with blatant mistakes in ribbon set up from placement, to bars being upside down, awards that aren’t official and in some rare circumstances the awards weren’t even earned. I posted somewhere on the forum an article from an Army base magazine about the problem of the wearing of ribbons incorrectly by the troops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmar836 Posted November 9, 2022 Share #10 Posted November 9, 2022 I have one with ribbons out of order directly from the family. Was told they were in the wrong order by a well meaning ex-member here while displaying it locally. I just smiled and said, "That's the way he had it so it will have to stay that way as long as I own it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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