Hi all, Putting a Christmas present together for dad....giving him a picture of LCT 322-I took the 323 and photoshopped the 3 to a 2. Looks darn good when printed out Anyway, along with the picture, I want to put his campaign medals/ribbons, but I"m running into trouble with the identification of them. On his discharge paperwork it says; Pacific Theater Ribbon, American Theater Ribbon and Victory Medal. I've only been finding an Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon...not just a pacific theater ribbon. I think I found the other two without a problem (I've been googling so much today...it's all a blurr..lol) My brother found a model of an LCT so we are giving him that as well-they were all grey correct? The display pic of the model has a red hull, but it doens't look like that from the pics on line-but of course they are in black and white...maybe the hull was a deep red. Any help would be appreciated. He served in the pacific-boganville if that helps. Thanks!!
You might want to check out this site, and match up what you have with their stuff: Goto: U.S. Navy Hope you get the complete the mission, good luck to you.
The Pacific Theater ribbon and the Asiatic-Pacific ribbon are the same thing. I'm guessing he was awarded the American Defense ribbon (if he was in service before 1941), and the other award is the World War 2 Victory ribbon. All of these can be found on the site Clint suggested. When you finish the box, why not send us a photo of the completed item? We would sure appreciate it.
You got to remember that the main color was "haze gray", but the hull below the loaded waterline was painted in "red lead" for most ships of the time. The box picture might be slightly misleading in that. As Lou says, when you finish the job we at the forum would love to see the finished project. Sounds like a great tribute!
thanks everyone for the info! I had no idea that ships hulls at the time were red....very interesting. Is there any reason for that? That site that clint listed is actually one I was checking out. but I didn't see a Pacific Ribbon so that threw me off. I looked at the American Campaign Ribbon and that fits his service time. I emailed my brother about this because he's retired army and would probably know better than me, but if you gentlemen would care to offer an answer it would be great. My dad's discharge just says pacific theater "ribbon" not medal (I actually didn't know there was a medal till browsing the site clint mentioned). Is he still authorized the medal? Or did he probably get the medal as well and it's just not listed as such? I recall while in the air force we had some ribbons that didn't have medals to go along with them. butI can't recall getting being awarded any theater ribbons while in england...and I'm sure I didn't get medals to go along with them, if I did. I have my individual medals, but that's it. I"m getting a wild hair now. Dad has been after me to make him a wooden anchor (I do some scroll sawing and other woodworking) so now I"m thinking....maybe I'll make a 24 inch or so anchor and mount the medals and ribbons on the anchor somehow. I have a feeling dad will be giving a "gift to follow" coupon for christmas. And of course...I will be sure to post pics of the entire process...lol CLARIFICATION: I just thought it was odd that the items on his discharge were listed pacific theater "ribbon" when there is also a medal and victory "medal" instead of just ribbon. I guess I'm wondering why they all weren't listed as medals. Does that makes sense?
The Navy does some screwy stuff is the answer that springs to mind. Often times "ribbons" were issued before the medals were available as it is easier to produce 3 million ribbons than it is to produce 3 million matching medals. The medals would most often be sent to the servicemember after discharge or were available as a private purchase item through the PX.
The practice of using lead oxide (red lead) on the lower hulls of ships dated back to the wooden hull days when a thick coating of "red lead" would fill the imperfections in the hulls, and increase speed. This was also used as an "anti-foulling" method, barnacles and sea-weed especially. Today there are different compounds used since lead has largely been removed from the paints starting in the 1970s. It is still a debatable topic as to whether the "red lead" actually kept barnacles from attaching or not, since they still did so, but perhaps at a slower rate than on a "bare painted" hull? Or it might have just been tradition, and the navies of the world are "knee deep" in traditions sometimes. Navies hold onto them in the face of all evidence which shows them to be inefffetive, or outdated, or just "this is how we always do it."
