Hello, 

I recently received this pair of EGAs from a seller who hadn't taken great up close photos of them due to the dress blues jacket being the main point of sale. Originally I believed that these EGA were 'gold' brass EGAs for the dress blue uniform but upon closer inspection, they appear to be the green winter service uniform 'black/bronze' EGAs that were submerged in gold paint of some sort and thus poorly covered. My guess is that they were painted by the seller perhaps to match the dress blue uniform they came with, but I am unsure. If this is the case, I would like to take a shot at removing the paint somehow, but I worry that it may damage the birds somehow. Does anyone have any recommendations or guesses as to why they were dunked like this?

Acetone/nail polish remover, a Q-Tip, and elbow grease will take off a lot of these paints without touching the period finish beneath. Have done it myself several times, this is not an unusual occurrence. There's a chance the Marine, lacking a suitable set of dress emblems, did it himself in a pinch to make do until a replacement set could be scrounged up. Sort of an Em-Nu approach, but that's just a theory.

Thanks for the recommendations, as soon as I give it a try I'll post images of how they turned out. Also, in regard to your theory, I came up with a similar one as well but I still wouldn't put it past a low-brow seller to have done this himself at one point. I mostly arrive at the latter theory due to how poor these look in person. Before I took these photos nearly all the 'empty' spaces between the wings, globe, and anchor, were connected by globs of hardened paint. 

That's how almost all of the ones I've encountered over the years were...thick, globby paint. And every time it adversely impacted the sales price and I got a deal, which is why I've come to believe it's not a seller practice. Maybe a reenactor or collector or family member and not the Marine himself, but it's not an effective sales tactic.

It took me quite a while to finally get all the paint out of the smaller areas but they look great! I placed them onto a more rightful jacket in my opinion and then proceeded to look into the Marine who wore the winter service uniform. Below I'll put together all the information that I found on the Individual from muster roles. There are a few things I couldn't quite figure out, things like what "9 qual MM" meant or how he all of a sudden became a 2nd lieutenant after his reenlistment. Anyways, it was a fun small project and I hope to locate a Sharpshooter badge (not sure the visual difference between WW1, interwar, and WW2 are) and a Good Conduct ribbon for the jacket, maybe a marksmanship badge as well but I'm not certain. 

 

Chester E. Walker Jr. -

1937 - 

(Jul, 7) Enlists in Portland Oregon 

(Aug, 2) assigned to 2nd marine brigade fleet marine forces post

(Sept, 20) 2nd Brig. detached from FMF to Shanghai, China

1938 -

(Feb, 11) Embarked on USS Bridge from Shanghai to Peiping

(Oct) Received sharp shooter badge for target year 1938

1939 -

(Mar) Promoted from Pvt. to PFC.

(May) “Co runner.” → Company runner?

(Jun) “Co runner; 9 qual MM” → Marksman qualification?

(Jul) “Co runner.” 

(Oct) Tientsin, temporary guard for shipment of gov’t freight 

(Nov) “Co runner.”

(Dec) “2 pro; Co runner.” → 2nd promotion, now corporal?

1940 -

(Jan) Chinwangtao, temporary guard for home-going freight

(Aug) In Washington State on guard duty 

1941 -

(Jan) Became the company clerk

(Apr) “sk USNH, this NYd” → Scheduled to naval hospital?

(Jul) Discharged/Excellent Character/Awarded Good Conduct Medal

1942 -

(Jan) “On d DHS Detroit Mich.” → Reenlists as sergeant?

(Oct) “On d DHS Minneapolis, Minn.”

1943 -

(Oct) Student 1st Sergeant School 

1944 - 

(Jan) Gunnery Sergeant

(Oct) 2nd Lieutenant

Emblems look great, what did you end up using to remove the paint?

 

9 Qual MM means that on the 9th of the month, he qualified as a marksman on the range, which means he would have had to replace the sharpshoot badge with the lower marksman badge.

 

Sk USNH meant that he was sick at the US Naval Hospital as a patient

 

It was quite common for Marines to receive battlefield commissions during WWII as officers became casualties, particularly by pre-war Marines who tended to shoot through the ranks when the war broke out because even a couple years of experience were far more than most during the influx of troops required to fight the war.

A friend lent me their nail polish remover named 'Zeta solvente', it worked pretty well although it did take a while 

 

Thanks for the info on the Marine as well, I assume the Marksman badge is the bar without any hangers on it? Or am I wrong? 

 

Also, would the Marine have needed to replace the sharpshooter badge he had been wearing? I feel as though I've seen photos of Marines with both the sharpshooter and Marksmanship badge on, though I could totally be wrong lol. 

 

Below is a photo I found of a Marine with both I believe, though again I know I could totally be off on this, I'm no expert.

That Marine wears a pistol expert badge in addition to his rifle sharpshooter, two different badges.

 

At the time, there was no pistol marksman level badge.

 

There was a period from the 20s-30s where Marines wore Army style shooting badges instead of Marine badges, I'd have to go back and check when the regulation switched to know when the switch was made.

Alright, I'll look into which marksmanship badge would work best for this uniform. I assume it would be the one with the bar that says marksman and has the two little targets on wither side without hangers.