Milsurp After Hours

Posted: **Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:10 pm**

That's a good link. Lots of good stories. Interesting points of view in the writing as well.

I read this one story about a British hero who did a lot of heroic things as a private and up through the ranks. It was remarked how he had received a bounty from his home county for being the first to win the Victoria Cross from the town where he came from. Then at the end of the story the writer says this:

I purchased Bent’s gallantry and service medals at a Dix Noonan Webb auction in London in 2000. By then, I had been fascinated by bravery all my life, a passion partly inspired by my late father, Eric, who had served in the Army during the Second World War and had taken part in the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944. My passion for bravery, in turn, led to an interest in gallantry medals in general and the VC in particular. After making some money as an entrepreneur, I bought my first VC in an auction in 1986. Today I own more than 180 VCs and my collection, which includes Bent’s VC, is on display in the gallery bearing my name at the Imperial War Museum, along with VCs and George Crosses (GCs) already in the care of the museum.

Medals for gallantry bought and sold. It's done today by a lot of Americans too. Shows you how little the medals are really worth in balance with the things men did to earn them. At least the guy writing the story loaned his collection to a museum.....in a gallery bearing the lenders name, of course.

Posted: **Tue Jan 07, 2014 3:28 am**

He is a very wealtyh man Robert but at least he uses some of his wealth to educate others unlike some people who just squander it on themselves.

Posted: **Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:08 pm**

I'm sure he see's no irony in any of what I'm suggesting about how medals are bought and sold or that he donated them in his own name as the new owner. Certainly I can direct you to a site where US medals from an assortment of wars are bought and sold and bragged about as collectibles so that doesn't come as any surprise. Here is an example that includes my own two cents worth at another site because of the bogus knowledge expressed over a fairly common Bronze Star decoration. The whole string is about "worth". I'm sure the collectors contributing to the string all knew about "worth". Back in the day we used to say that with an Army Commendation Medal and a quarter you could buy a cup of coffee. Now days the cup of coffee has gone up in value.... you'd need several quarters. The medal is still the same value.

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... citations/

Here is a more involved string at my other site that really says how I feel about medals that one man earned with his death in combat and what happened to his medals afterward.

http://www.6thofthe31st.com/bb/viewtopi ... dals#p8117

Posted: **Tue Jan 07, 2014 11:26 pm**

Robert, some medals can be quite valuable. I didn't find out until too late and my children had all finished school. In SC, if you received a purple heart medal, your kids can go to a state college tuition free. I only found out after the fact, and there is no money in the program to reimburse you for tuition paid. It isn't an advertised program. My state house rep was trying to get them to make an exception, but she was voted out of office before she could finish. The new guy was a youngster with no connections or political savvy and couldn't/wouldn't do anything to help. It would have saved a lot of money.

Posted: **Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:20 am**

Bob.. that's interesting. Hope some Vietnam veterans kids got some benefit out of it in South Carolina. Guess now the new wounded veterans of the recent Muslim wars will get the benefit for their kids in your state. What would happen if a wounded veteran moved to South Carolina? Could his kids get the benefit?

What about the kids of those who were awarded a Purple Heart because they were killed? Anybody tell the mother? What if the mother remarries and the new step father adopts the kids?