Labor of Honor and Love

[KC1]

I am proud to present to you the retirement uniform of my father from his 37 years of active duty (30 yrs commissioned) spanning 3 wars from WWII, Korea and Viet Nam. A heavily awarded combat vet that can be seen from the photos, he was also awarded the West German "Das Grosse Verdienstkreuz" presented by then Germany's President Scheel in September 1976.

My father's storied military history is fully documented and I will be posting further updates to the "Groupings and Individual History Archive Forum" that will include all his award documents, uniforms, hats and helmets, web gear and other pieces of interest at a later time next month.

This uniform will be centered along with the WWII IKE jacket and OS hat as well as my grandfather's WWI uniform.

Hope you enjoy the prelude of photos.

[KC1]

2

[KC1]

3

[KC1]

4

[KC1]

5

[KC1]

6

[KC1]

7

[KC1]

8

[Paul Chepurko]

Very nice. I noticed the air medal. What was you Dad awarded this for?

[A. Bogan]

The three-bar unit award mount is upsidedown. The OLC's on the MUC and the device on the RVN Cross of Gallentry are upsidedown. The MUC should be on the left when looking at the bar. Also, the blue on the Taeguk of the ROK PUC should be on the bottom. The ribbon bar for the MUC may be mounted in the gold frame upsidedown, too. I think the leaves on the left and right sides of the gold border should be aligned like those on the other two unit awards.

[-Ray-]

KC1

No doubt you are a proud son of a sacred warrior and father. This is a nice uniform and I look forward to seeing some pictures of your father and more updates.

What is the foreign award above the unit citations? I think its a German engineer qualification badge but not sure. My son that's in the Army now was once in the German Army for a year as an engineer.

Also as A. Bogan states: a few of the unit awards are upside down in the frame. The key is that the gold frames should have the directional pattern likewise as wheat always grows upward.

-Ray-

[John F.]

I don't want to rain on the parade because your project is so nicely done, but I think miniture medals were only worn on the Mess Dress uniform and full-size medals were worn on the Dress Blue uniform. What you have pictured is the Dress Blue uniform.

[KC1]

Ray, Bogan, Paul -

Thanks for looking and your constructive feedback. If you look at my avitar, you can see the photo I used to reconstruct the uniform.

I have corrected the 3-ribbon bar and will post a photo when I return from vacation. Thank you for the heads up. (I believe my Dad wore it this way for some time - don't think anyone bothered to tell him otherwise!)

What is the foreign award above the unit citations?

Ray - this is a West German award. It is the Luftwaffe Performance Decoration for Antiaircraft-Rocketry Personnel and is the Proficiency Class III (gold)

I noticed the air medal. What was you Dad awarded this for?

Paul - he was awarded this in Viet Nam. Here is the award document. I know it had to do something with his extracting snipers from a helicopter while his troops were pinned down. Will try to show the actual document stating this.

I think miniture medals were only worn on the Mess Dress uniform and full-size medals were worn on the Dress Blue uniform

John - you are absolutely correct. To honor my father best I wanted to mimic his retirement photo (avitar).