a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Japanese or Korean made?
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13th Bomb Squadron Grim Reapers Grouping from Long Beach
- Thread starter a2jacketpatches
- Start date
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Oh! And does someone have a replacement Oak Leaf Cluster for me?
unclegrumpy
Well-Known Member
The ribbon set, Major's leaf, and wing look to be, and are probably Japanese made. The Grim Reaper's patch is a 1960's or 1970's blazer emblem, and likely Pakistani made. I have a similar blazer emblem that has a label on it...."Gold Crest Ltd., North Hollywood, CA" but with no Country of origin. However, I am reasonably sure it is Pakistani made from the same time period.
TankBuster
Active Member
unclegrumpy said:
I would concur with this. The patch is a later piece.
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Makes sense, I had a similar patch years ago for another squadron. Probably purchased for a reunion or something.
Can anyone ID the green ribbon?
Can anyone ID the green ribbon?
unclegrumpy
Well-Known Member
a2jacketpatches said:
The green ribbon is for an Army Commendation Medal. This started out in 1945 as a ribbon only award, so this fellow could have easily been awarded one before the Air Force split from the Army. The Air Force did not come out with it's own version of this medal until the late 1950's, so this fellow could have received this in the Korean War period too....which given the rest of his rack, looks more likely.
I'll have to take a look at some of the similar USAF ribbon racks I have. I don't recall seeing any Army Commendation Medals on them, but most have an Air Force Commendation Medal. Am wondering if later on for subsequent awards, they replaced the Army ribbon with the Air Force one. It would make sense, but I'll have to do a little research to see if that was actually the case.
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
I like when there's something odd in the pile. This'll make a cool display and conversation piece.
unclegrumpy
Well-Known Member
Tried to find something official to quote regarding the wearing of the Army Commendation Medal by AF personnel, but did not have any luck. Spoke to a friend of mine who is a retired Air Force Colonel that served in this time period, and he told me that the Air Force used the Army Commendation Medal until the AF version came out in 1958. If you were awarded both, then you wore both ribbons. He also said that the Air Force was very stingy with these medals, which would explain why you don't see many on ribbon bars.
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Very cool, I like the kit bag and found one like it a few weeks ago, is it KW issue? thought mine may be WW2. I also found a party jacket over the weekend for an F-105E Pilot that I think was made in Vietnam. I just snapped some photos so I'll post it tonight some time.
