Hey guys,   I had a friend of mine gave me a large crate today that she “inherited” via a step uncle that had no remaining family alive.  It is absolutely packed with this soldiers history including a hand typed journal that chronicles his  life starting from around 1925 ( he was born in 1912).   I included the excerpts of: his joining the Army in 27MAY1941....he started as a cook and later when to airborne school   deployment to Europe in FEB 1945 as a squad leader in rifle Company F, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division including his combat jump with Operation Varsity….his squad being cut off on 13APR1945 with him being wounded necessitating evacuation   Deployment to Korea in AUG 1951 as First SGT with Company M, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division and participating in “Operation Nomad”.   There are multiple large photos, journals, decorations, etc….. I have looked through less than 1/3 of it but wanted to share a part of his story.   J  

New addition, an early CPO Signalman  

Hmm, I to seen this somewhere, Hmm a English Royal Device, like a crest? Looks like device is resting on those Twists seen at the bottom of crests/   Like this

I appreciate it, from the research I’ve done I’m pretty sure the cav one was made in Prussia 

My opinion is they are both original. The top sword reminds me more of an 1850 foot officer sword, The other appears to be an 1860 light cav officer. I'm way more familiar with the standard 33's, 40's, and 60's. Private purchase swords were offered in so many varieties by so many vendors, I can't keep up. Hopefully someone who's more into blades will chime in. Nice blade btw!

Many of you will be familiar with the Oneida County, NY National Army medal/fob. It is dated 1917 and presumably was presented to men who were drafted after the first draft registration day on June 5, 1917 and perhaps after subsequent registrations. This medal is listed and illustrated in Richard Planck's book and is listed in Small's. I recently purchased 2 examples of a different version of that medal.  This one is for "Volunteers" and dated August 1917. I have not been able to find and history about it. But you can imagine that the county realized the men (and women) who volunteered instead of being drafted should be recognized as well and the second version was thus established.   The volunteer version also uses the seal of the City of Utica and "Unundadages" instead of the New York State seal. Unundadages is the Mohawk Indian name for the city. Perhaps this indicates the City of Utica created the volunteer version independently.   Photos of both follow. The obverses are similar and the reverses of both are blank. There are no manufacturer marks that I can see. Several companies made medals in a similar style including Whitehead & Hoag.   Dennis  

The one on the lower right was the original patch. The one on the lower left is the one they switched to after being called "Yellow Scorpions " over Japanese radio.