Lets see some US NAVY Good Conduct Medals !!

[J]

Wow, truly appreciate all the amazing responses to my post! I figured it was a nice one, but didn't quite realize it was this special.

 

He seems to have been a ''deckhand'' for a short amount of time on a Swedish ship before going to the US. And then, as aerialbridge pointed out, going back to Sweden after 91' to settle. 

 

    

 

 

On 1/25/2024 at 3:07 AM, aerialbridge said:

IMO if you paid anything less than $2500 US for that medal you got a great deal.   Amazing condition and with the original type ribbon,  super rarely seen.   And I could see it selling for over $3k on ebay US or an auction site easily.

To be honest, I won it for incredibly cheap. That's why I was a bit sceptic before I had done more research, but I suppose that there are very few collectors here that know how valuable these can be. Happy such a rarity could make it into my collection!

 

Jonathan

[Wharfmaster]

I love this medal!  My grandparents came from Vasternorrland.

 

I have a few USN Good Conducts to Vikings in my collection.

 

 

W

[jmar]

Greetings to all,

 

I hope this post finds you well.

 

This is a piece I've debated back and forth about adding here due to the circumstances of this veteran's history. I purchased this nearly a year ago, then I began  researching and found a tragic story. With many Veterans suffering with PTSD  I decided to add his story. Too long have mental health issues been neglected and back in 1944 I image there was little or no help. A beautiful USN GCM to a long serving CQM. I'll let the pics tell the story.

 

My best to you all, thank you for stopping by,

 

Joe

 

Name Fred Osborne E Young
Ship, Station or Activity Olivin
Ship Number or Designation PYC-22 
Muster Date 1 May 1942

Name    Fred Osborne E Young
Ship, Station or Activity    Olivin
Ship Number or Designation    PYC-22
Muster Date    30 Jun 1942

Name    Fred Osborne E Young
Ship, Station or Activity    Olivin
Ship Number or Designation    PYC-22
Muster Date    30 Sep 1942

Name    Fred Osborne E Young
Ship, Station or Activity    Olivin
Ship Number or Designation    PYc-22
Muster Date    31 Mar 1943

Name    Fred Osborne E Young
Ship, Station or Activity    Olivin
Ship Number or Designation    PYC-22
Muster Date    31 May 1943

Fred Osborne E Young
Ship, Station or Activity    Olivin
Ship Number or Designation    PYc-22
Muster Date    30 Jun 1943

Name    Fred Osborne E Young
Ship, Station or Activity    Olivin
Ship Number or Designation    PYC-22
Muster Date    30 Sep 1943

Name    Fred Osborne Everett Young
Ship, Station or Activity    Olivin
Ship Number or Designation    PYC-22
Muster Date    31 Dec 1943

Name    Fred Osborne Everett Young
Ship, Station or Activity    Olivin
Ship Number or Designation    PYC-22
Muster Date    29 Feb 1944

[Sweazy21]

One I just received today belonging to Leonard John Busen

[aerialbridge]

Superb engraving from 1954.  Congrats on snagging that one.

[jmar]

Greetings to everyone,

 

I hope you are all doing well.

 

I believe I found a mule! Was sorting some "relatively new" arrivals and found this little oddity. Nothing rare, just amusing.

 

Best wishes!

 

Joe

 

 

 

 

[skylog6]

Thanks for sharing all these medals and the informative discussion! I’m new to the forum and really enjoying it. I took a break while reading this thread to order "Fidelity, Zeal and Obedience" and hope that will assist me with identification of some of my NGCM from the 1920s, especially the one pictured here.

 

William Albert Marth enlisted 21 Dec 1920 and received his Navy Good Conduct Medal on 20 Dec 1924 (USS Doyen #280).

 

His first pin was earned on 5 Jan 1929 (USS Argonne) and his second pin was earned 23 May 1933 (USS Mahopac). Recommended on discharge 27 Mar 1936 for Good Conduct Medal, but there was no third pin when I acquired this group. Reenlisted 28 Mar 1936 for a period of four years. 28 May 1937 transferred to Fleet Reserve and released from Active Duty. Recalled to active-duty 30 Jul 1940 for duty in connection with conversion of USS Harris and USS Zeilin. Retired 1 Nov 1940. Earned the Yangtze Service Medal while serving on the USS Sicard in October 1926. This group included the Yangtze service medal M.No. 5037.

 

I like this medal because is shows the change in the early 1930s from Ship/Duty Station named pins to discharge year pins. I also like it as it is the most different of the NGCM medals I have. The stamping detail is especially clear on this medal (pictured on the left side by side with a 1920 issued medal).

 

I did see a couple very similar medals on this thread, one issued in 1923 (post #30) and one in 1925 (post #126). Three things I found in common with these medals.

1. 20 large portholes plus a small hawsepipe/cat’s hole

2. The first broken chain link at the 7 o’clock position does not come in contact with the anchor.

3. The “N” in Navy leans slightly to the right.

 

 

[aerialbridge]

Nice medal and great attention to detail, thanks for the side by side comparison. 

[Reforger]

Awarded to a radioman on the USS Blue Dolphin.

 

[Kaigun Shosa]

I haven't posted in a while so here's a nice one I have in my collection, its names to a Japanese American that was a Wardroom Attendant onboard the USS Texas back in the late 1890's. I couldn't find much on him, but I did find a picture of his tombstone, he's  buried in Brooklyn NY. He died 2 years after he was awarded his good conduct medal. I managed to find a crew photo that was taken in the late 1890's during the time he was onboard the Texas and there is one sailor that appears to be him since he is dressed as a steward or attendant. 

[aerialbridge]

That is a nice one.  I don't think I've ever seen a pre 1930 GCM engraved with ship and CSC (much less a Span Am era one) to one of the many Japanese, Chinese or Filipino Mess Attendants that served in the Navy for decades.   Great medal and sleuthing to find IMO a very probable ship's crew photo of him.   Having lived in Pacific Rim LA for 45 years,  I'm pretty good at differentiating physical appearance  between the three Asian countries where most of the MA hailed from,  and agree that the man you circled is Japanese, apart from the MA uniform.    Thanks for sharing. 

[gap]

Here’s one of mine from 1932. C catch. 

I don’t know much about these metals, but the obverse on this metal looks a little different than most I have seen.

 

Is anyone able to look up the sailor? 

 

 

[aerialbridge]

That's an actual Studley medal,  manufactured by Navy vet George W. Studley (1892-1968) for direct sale to veterans and others and privately engraved.    Here's the sailor's grave and some docs from ancestry.com.   I'd have no doubt that he bought the medal during his lifetime and had it privately engraved.   You'd have to order his personnel file from St. Louis to confirm that he was awarded a Good Conduct Medal, but I'd expect he was and in 1932.    He was from York, PA, and lived from 1897 to Sept 1939,  and died at Bremerton, WA while on active duty, with his last enlistment in 1936 per his VA burial card, so 1932 would likely have been the end of a  four year enlistment prior to that.   He did WWI army service from 1917 to 1919 in Co I of the 30th Inf. Div and then reenlisted right up to honorable Army discharge in 1924 from the back of his VA burial card.  The 1920 census has him at an army fort.   The 1930 census has him at the Philly Navy Yard which checks out for the 1932 end of enlistment date and an award of the GCM.   So I'd guess he enlisted in the Navy in 1928 for four years and was honorably discharged and recommended for the GCM and reenlisted for 4 years.  Question is, assuming he was awarded a GCM that would have been an official medal made by the US Mint and engraved with his name, so why the need for him to buy one privately-  maybe he lost or damaged the original?   There appears to be a lengthy article about him at the time of his death in the York PA newspaper but I don't have access to that.   The fact that you are in PA makes me think you got it pretty close to "out of the wood",   or at least, it didn't travel far over the past 90 years.   Here's his grave and he was a musician first class.  The middle name on the tombstone matches your medal-   ELIGH. 

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115275910/byron-e-markle

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131643778/george-w.-studley

 

[gap]

Sorry, dictation mispelled medal. 

 

Great research. Very interesting. Thanks!

 

But was Studley making full size medals in the 1930s? This sailor died in 1939. 

 

Yes, York is about 30 minutes away from me. 

[aerialbridge]

You're welcome-  very neat GCM and I'd say worthy of further research.  Anybody with a newspaper.com subscription should be able to help you out and find that long article at the time he died and perhaps some other news articles, maybe about his Army WWi service.  

 

Yes, Studley was making full size medals in the 1930s and I'm 99% certain that's who made yours.   I have  at least one in my collection that's unengraved.  

 

Medal collectors sometimes call any medal that's not GI a  "Studley" the way photocopies are called "xeroxes" or cola "coke" but yours really is a Studley. 

[Sweazy21]

1 hour ago, aerialbridge said:

That's an actual Studley medal,  manufactured by Navy vet George W. Studley (1892-1968) for direct sale to veterans and others and privately engraved.    Here's the sailor's grave and some docs from ancestry.com.   I'd have no doubt that he bought the medal during his lifetime and had it privately engraved.   You'd have to order his personnel file from St. Louis to confirm that he was awarded a Good Conduct Medal, but I'd expect he was and in 1932.    He was from York, PA, and lived from 1897 to Sept 1939,  and died at Bremerton, WA while on active duty, with his last enlistment in 1936 per his VA burial card, so 1932 would likely have been the end of a  four year enlistment prior to that.   He did WWI army service from 1917 to 1919 in Co I of the 30th Inf. Div and then reenlisted right up to honorable Army discharge in 1924 from the back of his VA burial card.  The 1920 census has him at an army fort.   The 1930 census has him at the Philly Navy Yard which checks out for the 1932 end of enlistment date and an award of the GCM.   So I'd guess he enlisted in the Navy in 1928 for four years and was honorably discharged and recommended for the GCM and reenlisted for 4 years.  Question is, assuming he was awarded a GCM that would have been an official medal made by the US Mint and engraved with his name, so why the need for him to buy one privately-  maybe he lost or damaged the original?   There appears to be a lengthy article about him at the time of his death in the York PA newspaper but I don't have access to that.   The fact that you are in PA makes me think you got it pretty close to "out of the wood",   or at least, it didn't travel far over the past 90 years.   Here's his grave and he was a musician first class.  The middle name on the tombstone matches your medal-   ELIGH. 

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115275910/byron-e-markle

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131643778/george-w.-studley

 

Studley did not manufacture the medals. If memory serves correctly, this one was manufactured by northern stamping co? Studley purchased from them and other companies in quantity and then re-sold to veterans. Offering services to replace lost medals or engrave them additional to creating ribbon bars, and mounting medals.

[Sweazy21]

2 hours ago, gap said:

Here’s one of mine from 1932. C catch. 

I don’t know much about these metals, but the obverse on this metal looks a little different than most I have seen.

 

Is anyone able to look up the sailor? 

 

 

I’ve seen a few like this as well as owned a bar done by Studley. 
Considering the front of the medal is the standard US Navy design and the back is the US Marine Corps design. It is classified as a mule. 

[gap]

More Navy GC Medals

 

 

[aerialbridge]

As granny would say,  "Them are all good",  as in US Mint production,  officially engraved and issued by the USN to the sailors named on them.    I knew a Ralph Davis who was a B17 bomber pilot, same name as your last medal.   Ralph used to run every day well into his 80s, not an ounce of fat on him and still had a hairline and head of hair better than most 25 year olds.   Told some good bomber pilot stories when I sometimes ran with him, and one particularly wing and a prayer landing in England.  

 

 

[Wharfmaster]

Wow, Stoner is a distant cousin of mine. We share a common ancestor, circa 1673.

 

 

Wharf

[aerialbridge]

Stoner could qualify for that "I hate my name" thread.  Or maybe love his name, depending on where his head was at. 

[Wharfmaster]

46 minutes ago, aerialbridge said:

Stoner could qualify for that "I hate my name" thread.  Or maybe love his name, depending on where his head was at. 

 

Steiner family from Switzerland, changed to Stoner to sound more English.

 

 

W 

[jmar]

Hello all,

 

I hope you're doing well.

 

I've really enjoyed this thread over the years. So many fine and historic examples have been posted. I'd like to add for historical reference the following:

 

William Hughlett

CSC 1792

(2) Type I USN Good Conduct Medals

Two Discharges

Died at sea: 5 September 1879 near Apia, Samoa

Served as Armorer on the USS Lackawanna

 

Best wishes everyone!

 

Joe