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willard j jenkins
12/25/2005 11:24:57 AM | I was going through my dads things and i have found an air metal and paper work. what whas an air metal for ?
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Donald Byers
12/25/2005 5:13:14 PM | http://us.f806.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?box=Inbox&MsgId=5623_13724148_70520_2102_217366_0_23443_285383_927199847&bodyPart=2&tnef=&YY=3542&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&VScan=1&Idx=1
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Don Byers
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Scott C. McElvain
12/25/2005 9:26:27 PM | I have gotten the general impression that completing so many missions would get you an Air Medal. I'd say 5 or 10 based on my dad's missions...........
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Win Bryson
12/29/2005 5:02:22 PM | I think Scott is correct:
5-Missions completed: Air Medal;
10-Missionas completed: Air Medal with OLC (Oak Leaf Cluster - a small bronze emblem attacbed to the Air Medal's ribbon, near the top);
15-Missions completed: Air Medal with 2-OLC;
and so on.
Depending on when (during WWII) the awards were made, some medals had the recipient's name engraved on the back. This last item I am the least sure about.
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Scott C. McElvain
12/29/2005 6:55:27 PM | Once you get an award, additional awards of the same medal give you a device, for some medals an Oak Leaf Cluster, for some a star. One additional gets a brone oak leaf, five gets a silver oak leaf cluster. Most medals come without names on the back. Probably just the highest get your name on the back.......
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Dave Edkins
1/8/2006 6:41:52 PM | The custom of the 8th Air Force was to award an Air Medal for 5 combat missions. The oak leaf cluster was awarded for additional awards, thus the AM with two oak leave clusters would represent 15 combat missions. The Navy and Marine Corps had different award criteria and used gold stars to represent additional awards. Most groups followed the practice of awarding the Distinguished Flying Cross for completing 25 missions. The government engraved the name on the back when forwarding posthumous awards of decorations. If awarded unengraved, the recipient could mail the medal into Philadelphia Mint to have them officially engraved.
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Scott C. McElvain
1/10/2006 8:12:13 PM | Thanks for the info on the engraving. Never heard that before. Wonder if they still do that......
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John Steuber
1/20/2006 9:21:49 AM | My uncle, T/Sgt Walter Boenig (401st Bomb Squadron, 91 Bomb Group) had, according to his discharge papers, an Air Medal with 5 oak leaf clusters. Does that mean he was on at least 30 combat missions? Did the 91st Group not award the DFC for 25 combat missions. My aunt told me that Walter actually flew in 38 combat missions.
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Dave Edkins
1/27/2006 11:13:57 AM | It is my understanding that decoration award practices differed for the bomb groups. Some groups were more stringent in handing out DFCs. The early war practice was to award the DFC for 25 missions, or completion of tour. This is illustrated by the Memphis Belle crew receiving the decoration before returning home for a bond tour. In the book, The Lucky Bastard Club, by Eugene Fletcher, he relates how the 95th Bomb Group C.O. discontinued awarded the DFC for tour completion in January 1945. So, the individual group and wing commanders had some control over the awards. Fletcher still received a DFC for flying the Cologne and Hamburg mission in October 1944. The Air Medal was created to help boost the morale of the airmen, facing daily combat with poor odds for survival. It could be awarded for individual actions as well as for cumulative combat missions. The five bronze clusters on the AM would indicate a possible thirty combat missions, the AM for the first five and a cluster for each additional five. A silver OLC was intended to represent five bronze clusters. I am not familiar with the award practices of all the groups. I hope this does help you a little.
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