THE UNIFORM CHAPTER

1

World War II, this award was limited to service units and was restricted to services performed between January 1, 1944 and September 15, 1946. Members of units that received the Plaque were entitled to wear on their right sleeve a two inch square of olive drab cloth on which appeared a golden yellow laurel wreath, one and five-eighths inches in diameter. It looks like my grandfather was involved in a unit that received a seriously prestigious award for their services in combat.

With regard to the various colorful ribbons on his uniform, it looks like my grandfather earned the EuropeanAfrican-Middle Eastern Campaign Ribbon (with five stars above it) indicating that he served in five campaigns, the Army Good Conduct Medal (AGCM) given to enlisted Army personnel who carry out three consecutive years of honorable and faithful service, and a rainbow looking ribbon known as the World War II Victory Medal for obvious reasons.

The one item on his uniform that really puzzled me was a gold pin of propellers with wings on his collar. My research found that it had something to do with Air Command. And that my friends is where I started to see the opening of the rabbit hole! Air Command? What the heck did my grandfather have to do with Air Command when he told me he just drove trucks during the war? The only information I had when I started was that he was in the Army, he drove trucks (Deuce and Half as they called them, a.k.a. “Jimmy”), and he was in Europe during World War II. I had no other information until now. Let’s just say I researched the hell out of the data I found regarding his uniform, the dates I compiled using both the data and my grandmother’s letters, and I started to note possible leads from small conversations that I had with my mom regarding what she remembered as a kid listening to my grandfather.

With the information that I was obtaining from the uniform, letters, and my grandmother’s scrapbook full of pictures, I was off to a pretty good start and I had no clue where this investigation was going to take me. Let’s just say I was not prepared at all for what I was going to find out next, let alone what I would find out as I was even writing about this research!