Dave I know Alexander Ashley owes this bar. He is trying to tell me it belonged to Brigadier General John Paul Ratay. However his awards do not match. But he then tried to tell me that since I found a color painting of him in uniform with all his awards that sometimes the artist got stuff wrong or they added stuff. While I am not doubting that happened i dont believe its his.   Below are two pictures I found on General Ratay

Looks like he served with the 78th Division in WW1

I think this is your guy...

Tried to send you a PM but you can’t rx msgs

According to the War Department, about 11,500 Americans were awarded the French Croix de Guerre during the First World War.  Unfortunately, there is no composit listing of recipients, although some recipients were cited in War Department General Orders. I have created a database of recipients which now lists over 10,500 names. Much of the information comes from secondary sources, like unit histories, but such sources are problematic because they often fail to mention the level of award and sometimes get the names wrong. On top of that, some individuals who were in a unit that was cited may have incorrectly believed that entitled them to wear the medal. There is however, an absolute gold mine of information. The Army Awards Cards on file in St. Louis contains detailed information on all recipients of decorations awarded for World War I service, including foreign decorations. That file is especially important because a large percentage of World War I personnel records were destroyed in the 1973 fire. Unfortunately, St. Louis has apparently been either unable or unwilling to digitize that file.   If you would like to check on a name in my database, just let me know. If you have a verified recipient of the French Croix de Guerre for World War I service, please send it to me so I can make sure it is included it in the database.

Over time I've seen a few of the Kingston knives with the USA marked main blades.  Early in the war Imperial used that marking on the main blade of some of their engineer's knives.  Kingston was a brand name owned by The Imperial Associated knife Companies during WW2.  IMHO, I've come to think that maybe someone found some stock of USA marked blades and made use of them. (?)

Someone must know him, is he ok?

WW2 atlas dated prior to 1944 (France shows as occupied territory) and a 1944 dated canteen with a 1941 dated cover.

Hi there   A very good friend of mine (a fellow ASMIC member) knows this design well and asked me to pass this on.   It was for the old Lowry Field (Colorado) Aerial Gunnery School during WWII.    Steve made the patch for the Lowry Air and Space Museum back in 1994.  It used the old gunnery school patch as the central design for the museum patch.   "The duffel bag was probably owned by either an Instructor or a student at the old WWII school."   Hope this helps   Phill        

🤣🤣🤣🤣 I’m out of likes 👍 . They needed to turn them around to put their best foot forward.  mikie