This is one of the items I acquired at the OMSA convention last week.

 

This is a very scarce box. It is the 1st style WWII untitled US Navy DFC box. It is not the same size as the other untitled US Navy boxes such as the green Am box and the Purple Heart box. It is similar in size to an Army box.

 

These boxes are often seen with posthumous awards from Midway or the Battle of the Coral Sea in them.

 

I thought I would share this box since its existence is unknown to most people. It is much harder to find than a green Air Medal box.

 

 

 

 

Kurt, that's is fantastic. You are a magnet for the good stuff. Would there have been DFCs awarded in this other than Midway and Coral Sea? Or are those just the most commonly seen in this early case??

Very nice find there Kurt.

John

Very Nice. The only other one I have seen was in this thread, post #8.

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/206809-navy-wwii-colored-medal-cases/?hl=%22colored+medal+cases%22

Kurt, that's is fantastic. You are a magnet for the good stuff. Would there have been DFCs awarded in this other than Midway and Coral Sea? Or are those just the most commonly seen in this early case??

Hi Tony

 

Lately my magnetism hasn't been good but I got lucky finding this!

 

I have had one other of these that came out of the family and it was from a pilot that sank a sub in early 1943. I have only seen 3 of these boxes in 30 years,

 

Kurt

Kurt, that's is fantastic. You are a magnet for the good stuff. Would there have been DFCs awarded in this other than Midway and Coral Sea? Or are those just the most commonly seen in this early case??

 

Tony - two of the guys I wrote about in my book, credited for sinking subs in mid/late 1943 had DFCs in this style of box. In fact, after seeing the first one, I e-mailed Kurt and some others just because I didn't have a clue of what it was! Only a handful of the other DFCs I photographed were cased, so I don't know the actual number of these relating to Atlantic-based sub hunters. However, considering that they were awarding the green-box Air Medals to the guys who sunk a sub in mid-1944, I would suspect that many of the early Navy DFCs from 1942/43 and possibly 44 were in these cases...but no one knows because so few exist...

Thank you for the information Kurt. I learn something new here almost every day.

Dick

Interesting, never seen one of those before. Thanks for showing.

Two of the guys I wrote about in my book, credited for sinking subs in mid/late 1943 had DFCs in this style of box.

Question....were any of those medals engraved?

Question....were any of those medals engraved?

No, neither of the early cased ones were engraved.

Thanks! I have always wondered when the Navy quit engraving DFCs presented non posthumously....we know they multi line engraved them for Coral Sea and Midway, but it appears they stopped before they ran out of these early style cases.

Kurt!

 

You have obtained the unobtainable, I've only seen 2 others in my time. Congratulations on a fantastic addition to your collection!

 

Best wishes,

 

Joe

I've been collecting medals since 1967 and have never seen the Air Medal, DFC, or Navy and Marine Corps Medal colored boxes. I'm familiar with the others, and the later type similar to the Army black leatherette cases.

Another great find Kurt! Thanks for enlightening all of us on these early boxes.

OK, so here are almost all of the colored Navy cases. Missing is the Navy MOH case.

Thanks for showing all of the different cases. NIce collection!

 

Kurt, is the covering on these DFC cases cloth? It appears so in your picture.

 

Gary B

It is cloth on the DFC case.

 

Kurt

Thanks for the response....now you need a nice early DFC for the case!

 

Gary B

Thanks for the response....now you need a nice early DFC for the case!

 

Gary B

Funny you should say that! I do have some early war US Navy ( US Mint Contract ) DFC's and what I have noticed about them is that the DFC planchet is a little thinner on the earlier ones. The later war US Mint medals are thicker,

 

Kurt

Does anyone know if the Mint made early Navy Bronze Stars? I am aware of the wrap brooch version, but all I've seen are stray medals.

 

I know they came in short black leatherette cases modeled after Army cases, but did they ever have a colored cloth version?

OK, so here are almost all of the colored Navy cases. Missing is the Navy MOH case.

OK, so here are almost all of the colored Navy cases. Missing is the Navy MOH case.

 

The Forum comes through again! The recently acquired grouping of Admiral John S. McCain had a green case with blue velvet interior base that I could not account for. It seems to go with his Distinguished Military Service Medal with Gold Star. Thank you very much for posting this very informative case coverage. Jack

Hey Kurt @KASTAUFFER, Thanks for your reply on my post today and your compliment regarding the Navy DFC with the early blue/grey box I recently acquired. I still had a little confusion and was hoping you might be able to help clarify a few things for me. What exactly, if any, relation is there between this box and the other untitled cases that are colored? I saw you mention in your original post here in this thread that the early blue/grey box “is the 1st style WWII untitled US Navy DFC box. It is not the same size as the other untitled US Navy boxes such as the green Am box and the Purple Heart box. It is similar in size to an Army box” and you had also mentioned it is far more rare than the green air medal untitled box, comparing the colored boxes with the blue-grey DFC box which lead me to believe they might be related. I had also seen a few other threads on the forum where multiple people had referred to the blue-grey box as one of the early colored navy boxes. Someone had posted this picture here in your thread as well showing all of the “colored navy cases” and includes the blue-grey box that we both have with all of the other untitled colored boxes.

On 10/5/2015 at 7:56 AM, emccomas said:

 

OK, so here are almost all of the colored Navy cases. Missing is the Navy MOH case.

 

 

After seeing some of these things, I was under the impression that the blue/grey box we each have was considered one of the early navy colored boxes. After seeing your reply in my thread to someone else that there is no colored navy box for the DFC, as well as some of the replies I received from other forum members saying the same thing, I’m even more confused because it appears some other forum members seem to think otherwise based on some of those other threads 😂 but you seem to be one of the best and most knowledgeable people on the forum to ask. I’m very interested in collecting WWII Navy and USMC awards and am hoping to educate myself more on things like this and prevent myself from saying incorrect things in my posts, which it seems I did by saying the blue/grey DFC case was a colored case in the same “Family” as the other colored ones, only larger, vaulted, with button.

Since I’m know aware that the case isn’t considered one of the navy colored cases, would they all be considered something else like “untitled cases” or “early navy cases”? Or maybe some other common term for the colored boxes that would also include the blue/grey DFC box? Is there any relation between them and the blue/grey box at all, other than being a Navy box, or is this box totally separate and unrelated to the others? Thanks in advance for your time and help, I’m very eager to learn more! 😃

-Vincent