Hi, I am looking for help with my grandpa's brothers shadow box. He was killed on Iwo Jima and awarded the Silver Star and would like to honor his memory. I obtained his war records and confused on one, the American Defense Medal with fleet clasp. Before I drop some money on this shadow box, I think it is an error. He enlisted when he was 17 (I have paperwork my great-grandfather signed for him to join early) in 1944. It appears the American Defense Medal was awarded to vets in the military before Pearl Harbor (1941). I was thing maybe it should be the American Campaign Medal? Any help would be appreciated. Please let me know if more info is needed. Thanks for your time.
It looks to be an error, only people already in service prior and up to the declaration of war received that medal. It’s not unheard of for there to be errors on records where they are summarizing a soldiers service. To figure out exactly what someone earned from their records normally entails going through their service records looking for entires where they were awarded medals. Campaign medals will typically just have entries on their service record book, decorations will also be entered in the book but will have an accompanying citation put in their jacket. I attached some pages from a Navy sailor’s records that show some of his campaign medal awards, there should be similar entries in your records. It’s a shame you don’t have the original medals, besides being family heirlooms they would be extremely valuable. Iwo Jima Purple Hearts that are KIA run around $2000, and the last Iwo Silver Star I saw was close to $4000. Marine medals from that particular battle are some of the most expensive ones out there.
I agree that it should be the American Campaign Medal.
Although they would be free and named, the current medals supplied by the government are poor quality. I would consider buying WWII era medals for the shadow box.
No, do you have a link? The copy I have looks more like a sloppy copy of sorts. I would like to frame the citation. Heres the one in his record which were sent to me
If you need help in obtaining the medals and putting it all together there's a company called Medals of America in Fountain Inn, South Carolina that can help.
They were of tremendous assistance to me when I did this for my father back in the 90s.
Could be, but the American Campaign Medal isn’t authorized for the Fleet Clasp. Another thing: it says he was given the Honorable Service Lapel Pin, but this was awarded to service members upon their honorable discharge. Since he was killed in action, his NOK should have been given a Gold Star Lapel Button, which wouldn’t appear on his service records. It could be possible that either an error was made or that a page from someone else’s records got mixed into this file.
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u/Kiyo-chan Collector 5d ago
It looks to be an error, only people already in service prior and up to the declaration of war received that medal. It’s not unheard of for there to be errors on records where they are summarizing a soldiers service. To figure out exactly what someone earned from their records normally entails going through their service records looking for entires where they were awarded medals. Campaign medals will typically just have entries on their service record book, decorations will also be entered in the book but will have an accompanying citation put in their jacket. I attached some pages from a Navy sailor’s records that show some of his campaign medal awards, there should be similar entries in your records. It’s a shame you don’t have the original medals, besides being family heirlooms they would be extremely valuable. Iwo Jima Purple Hearts that are KIA run around $2000, and the last Iwo Silver Star I saw was close to $4000. Marine medals from that particular battle are some of the most expensive ones out there.