In this famous full color photo in Look Magazine, taken in 1949, Audie Murphy is wearing the medals he was awarded and presented. What is curious is the planchet on the Bronze Star. It looks like a Silver Star with a Bronze Star drape. Note the wreath around the center star on the piece. Bronze Stars do not have a wreath, only smooth rays leading to the center smaller star.   Questions 1- Has anyone ever seen anything like this on a Bronze Star before?   2- Where is Audie Murphy's actual Medal of Honor today? I know the certificate was in the Smithsonian museum system. A medal was on display about 20 years ago in the Texas museum to him. Does anyone have a picture of the actual engraving of his medal?    For fun, and as a tribute to Audie Murphy and the men he served with and lost, here is a recreation of the medals in this photo.   Steve

nice liner

I am afraid that I am going to have to agree with the General on this one.  My current Jeep is an all-matching Oct '42 Ford that was an un-adulterated garage find.  It had 95% of the original Ford factory installed components still intact.  All the engine components were the originals from the factory.  The missing 5% were cosmetic items.  It had 14,000 original miles (all the factory gauges are there).  My Carb is a 12 patten Carter.  This is the 5th Jeep my brother & I have restored (he is a 40-year Ford Master Mechanic & also ASE Grand Master mechanic) and we have never seen one in this complete status.  He has also restored another half dozen or so for others.  The 1st Jeep we restored was in 1981.  Attached are pics of my Carb.   Thanks,   OD 

This one is pretty cool!! I guess you could call it a “pre V victory”. I have another, serial number 997600, that went to the Maritime Commision.  I’ll letter this one to see where it went!! Thanks for looking!!  PS. The grips also match!!

All I can say it that apparently the 12 patent bowl made its documented entry on a 698S carburettor in a 1948 dated Carter bulletin, while early post-war bulletins mention a carby with 8 patents, not being the war-time 539S. However, 698S carburettors have been found NOS in early 1950's dated packaging and were certainly used by the military as replacement parts at that time.       We never had them, up to now we used bolts to mount the carburettor on the manifold 🤭 But studs are correct and used for a reason, so I will use them when I get a pair. I also need the studs for the coil and throttle linkage, but those are available from the usual parts vendors.    

It's a joke, or satire, really.  Here's a section from a similar document during Vietnam

Nice find - I bought its near twin at a 'buckskinner' show for $25 fairly recently.     The leather looks fine, as does the knife - I would do zero treatment or polishing.  It's done fine for 60+ years.   I make and buy / sell a lot of knives, and would much rather find a clean un-messed-with one like this than something that somebody has tinkered with.    

Those are standard BDU's and the shirt is a normal long sleeve DBU top. The Army regs for rolling up the sleeves required you to roll 2 or 3 inches of the cuff over the rolled up section of sleeve for a neater appearance as opposed to the USMC that just rolled theirs up.

The other oval has the West German colors.

. Hi early mb,   This is where I find all this to be down the rabbit hole as you say.     So, the 12-patent bowl really is post-war, but it will function just fine and will bolt on any MB/GPW/CJ2A/M38 block. While other than details the 539S and 698S appear the same, there are undoubtedly a few differences that made the 698S more suitable for civilian use.   You say that the 12 patent carb is post war, but the final twelfth number predates WWII, we were pulling those off wartime jeep wrecks from farmyards, in the 1970's not Jeeps that had continued to be used or reconditioned.    The problem is with all of this is that there is no first party experience, anyone alive working at the factories during WWII are gone, since then it is all supposition, just as my statement that we pulled twelve patent number carbs off wartime Jeeps wrecks then this could be considered supposition.    Anyway I will be rebuilding this eight number carb with the flange on the rear that appears in all the wartime manuals, and it will please fellow enthusiast when they see it's an eight number carb,  but how many will also look on the rear for the flange  as well !!!!!!  🤣     Which reminds me I need to get the 2 studs to mount the carburettor to the inlet manifold, but these seem a bit hard to find... as usual 🤭   What's happened to the two studs that would have been on your manifold when you stripped the Jeep down for rebuild.   !!!!  🤫 Don't tell me the stud-fairy stole them . . . . . .    Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 23 May  2O26.   ..