What is that?
Average NCO sent us this picture and he’s already filed for a FOIA on the whole dude, but I was just wondering if anyone has ever seen that red badge that Studly here is wearing over his rack of ribbons (he claims that he was in Vietnam and Desert Storm). But, I think he’s just wearing it to be unique, I’ve never seen anything that was red and had crossed rifles on it, seen’s how crossed rifles only look good with blue.
Category: Who knows
Combat Artillery Badge. Interesting.
And also quite unofficial.
It looks like some Science Fiction Combat Badge.
Maybe something out of Buck Rodgers are Battlestar Galactica.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unofficial_badges_of_the_United_States_military
Google shows it as a combat artillery badge.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Combat+Artillery+Badge&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=kzncUamFBYSZyQHb4oCwDQ&ved=0CFUQsAQ&biw=1349&bih=939
Combat artillery badge, seen those and Combat Tanker also. Never official obviously but sometimes seen in the 60’s and 70’s. Kaufmans surplus across from the port authority terminal in NYC used to sell them…. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unofficial_badges_of_the_United_States_military
I believe he is wearing a Combat Artillery Badge. Like the Air Assault Badge, not officially awarded, but a real decoration from the past.
Star fleet transporter qual badge?
@7 the Air Assault Badge aka the Bullwinkle badge is authorised for wear by those who graduate from the Air Assault School.
82d patch on left Shoulder and no Jump Wings… Bull Shit!
As others have said-the badge is out there for sale, but unofficial. As to his ribbons, they are all kinds of jacked up-out of order and on KLM is upside down (also it looks like his Army Service Ribbon has devices on it, which are unauthorized).
“…one KLM…”
I can’t blow this up enough but his VSM has either a Vietnamese Palm device (way wrong) on it or worse, it looks like an Arrowhead device. I don’t remember but I think there were only 2 Vietnam operations that qualified for the Arrowhead device. Correct me if I am wrong.
It’s a Field Artillery combat badge. Totally unauthorized but there’s a version Armor, Cavalry, hell maybe Finance for all I know.
ANALYSIS:
1. Tactical white tee shirt (new trend).
2. Unsubduded rank on collar (to let enemy know who is in charge).
3. Ribbons worn on BDU (battle field credentials).
4. Number of neck creases not corresponding with years of service (self explanatory).
5. Bubba the redneck (in red tee shirt) has lost his sister wife and can of beer (similar scenes through Appalachia).
6. Grommet hole strategically located directly on top of collar bone for gratuitous LRP pain (no pain , no gain).
7. Flag is worn on wrong side of uniform (shit … missed that one).
REAL DEAL!
That is a commerically available badge billed as a combat artillery badge. (Google those three words) It is FA red and those are crossed cannons. It’s a gimmick available through a number of commercial sites.
I think the BDUs he is wearing are from some country other than the US. there is a button near the collar on his shoulder that would have been used to secure shoulder epaulets. lots of countries that use woodland BDUs add those. putting my money on a surplus store ranger.
I’m Andy @17, someone else is using Andy as well today, boo!
True story, no lie: Back in the Corn Fields ‘Nam…
Oh, why not? If you are going to put a bunch of ribbons on a utility uniform, make them pretty.
Love the red whatever-it-is badge. It coordinates so nicely with the patch on the left sleeve. And brings out the red of all those ribbons.
That’s the “Combat Artillery Badge.” I’ve seen some Fisters wear them on their Stetsons back I. My cavalry days. There’s a yellow one with crossed sabres for the Cav guys. It’s a morale thing.
Whoa, my bad on the redundancy. There were no comments when I made my post, I took too long typing, haha.
No I am Andy … wink!
Apologies for the poor quality photo. It was pulled from a facebook profile from the spouse of a guy we’ve been working on since April. I was contacting her to ask the status the DD 214 her husband promised me three weeks ago, when I saw she had posted this photo of an entirely different guy she bumped into at a Memorial Day event. The upside-down KLM is the first thing I saw. Poor gal is attracting phonies like flies.
Damn I was thinking it was the red badge of courage
Combat artillery badge.
There was a push before the CAB to have branch specific combat badges.A buddy gave me one as a gift.
My PL got one for everyone in our platoon upon redeployment from A-Stan. Combat Field Artillery Badge. Obviously not a real award and should never be worn on any uniform or passed off as a real award, but it is a sweet as motherf**kin taboo looking badge and is a cool novelty to have.
I have also seen the same badge for Engineers.
US Army swag is so out of control people just make badges and awards.
Who knew that cooks(gold chevrons) were airborne…..
@9: The Air Assault Badge as we know it today was authorized as a local badge by the 101st in 1974, and Army wide in 1978. But the 11th Air Assault Division had an unofficial air assault badge as well. Shelby Stanton has a picture of it in his book, Vietnam Order of Battle. And Wikipedia has a picture and description on its Air Assault Badge page, under the section “original badge.”
http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/UniformedServices/Badges/assault.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Assault_Badge
@17 Andy, in other photos I have he is wearing a white cord on that button as part of an honor guard for a local veteran’s group. Sad to say this guy is the Vice President of his local chapter of his group which remain nameless until we get the FOIA. The honor guard wears the BDU’s as a group with black berets, which is fine for a joint veterans honor guard. But in other photos he is wearing lots of other finery, like a CIB and Presidential Unit Citation. More to come…….and we haven’t gotten to the guy we’ve originally been looking at….I just stumbled on Red Badge guy last night by accident.
“Combat Artillery Badge.” Looks more like “X marks the spot.” He’s such a BAMF that he’s daring someone to take a shot at him.
You know what they say, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.
What is the ribbon under the BS?
#31, great another dufus mucking up a legit Vet organization?
What it that? As 68W58 put it, it’s one royally f-ed up ribbon rack and uniform, for starters.
He appears to be wearing the following ribbons:
Top Row: BSM (1 OLC), ARCOM, GCM (maybe w/OLC – doesn’t seem to be a knot)
2nd Row: TN Indiv Ach Ribbon, OSR (can’t tell if it’s a number or 1/more OLCs), ASR (w/3 or 4 stars?)
3rd Row: NDSM (w/OLC), VSR (2 CS?), RVMGC w/Palm (individual)
4th Row: RVN VCM w/1960- device, KLM, (Saudi), SWASM (3 CS?)
5th Row: KLM (Kuwait), TN Service Ribbon (w/OLC?), (unk)
6th Row: ARCAM (1 OLC?), Navy/USMC Overseas?, ARCAM (2 OLC?)
Resolution isn’t good enough to definitively see number of OLCs in some cases, so the above could be somewhat off.
If anyone can figure out the outboard ribbon on the 5th (next to bottom) row, I’d be much obliged. It looks similar to a few NG ribbons for which I found pics, but the center red is too dark to be a match.
Other than the top row, the rest is not even close to being in order of precedence. Correct order is generally US individual decorations followed by US campaign/service medals/ribbons followed by approved foreign decorations followed by state NG decorations, with ribbons in each category arranged in specified order of precedence.
Vietnam Service ribbon (yellow, 3 narrow red stripes in the middle, green borders) with something pinned to it, can’t make it out, but no Vietnam Campaign ribbon? (green and white stripes, usually with a silver bar dated 1960- no end date) I think you could get the Vietnam Campaign without getting the VNService ribbon. And what’s that thing on his gedunk ribbon? If he was in the Gulf War, wouldn’t be a single star?
Rank chevrons should be brown for fatigues. The VC aimed at anyone wearing gold pins, especially officers. He might have lost the originals, though.
Turkey wattle neck is psuhing or over 70, too much sun and no sunscreen. I’ve seen photos of tankers wearing sunglasses on the road over there. Might have been there, but — well…. Looks made up to me. I don’t know what the Army handed out during Vietnam, but I never saw enlisted guys coming back with that much hoo-hah pinned on.
I’ll wait and see.
Ex-PH2: he’s sporting the RVN VCM on the 4th row, inboard.
It’s theoretically possible for someone to have qualified for the VSM but not the RVN VCM. VSM required 1 day assigned/30 days consecutive TDY/60 days nonconsecutive TDY in the RVN, while the VCM required 6 months duty. However, Army tours were 1 year – so qualifying for the VSM w/o also qualifying for the VCM would be pretty uncommon for someone in the Army.
@10 – I’ve got an NCO who did a tour in the ‘Stan with the 82nd, preceded by six or seven months of garrison and training. He’s not no jump wings. His story is that they couldn’t get him into the school and I’ve no reason not to believe him.
There is a reason I still visit this(aside from getting amazed at posers’ stories), I am always learning something new on awards and decorations. Combat Artillery Badge that is a new one on me, Wonder since he is going unofficial why doesn’t he have a Cold War Victory medal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War_Victory_Medal. His service time based on his awards appear to qualify.
Can’t wait to see what the whole story is on this guy.
Speaking of old awards anyone here old enough to remember Recondo badges? Were they ever official? I just recall some Vietnam Vets wearing them.
I should be able to wear a combat medal with an ass an icicles on it for serving in the Infantry in Alaska !!!
Dear Posers,
Not being in the military (kind of like YOU), I can’t be sure, but I have been told that there is a manual that tells you how and in what order those ribbons are supposed to be stacked. This information is probably on the internet as well. You might find this useful when trying to pass yourself off as something you are not. Putting them on incorrectly, I am told, is a dead give away that you are an idiot who can’t read much less get into the military.
Just Trying to be Helpful,
Susan
wth ^^^^
Back in my first enlistment our company first sergeant had a Combat Engineer Badge framed and mounted behind his desk. He was given (he always stressed he was given it, not awarded or earned it), by an Infantry Copmany Commander for his actions while building s bridge in Vietnam. I don’t remember the story well enough to tell it, but the unit they were supporting took some CIBs and hammered/welded an Engineer castle over the rifle and then gave them to the squad he was in because of their willingness to drop their shovels, grab their rifles and be infantrymen.
He said he used to wear it to informal events until he was told to stop.
Which is nothing like today where informal awards like this and coins are so commonplace as to have lost all meaning.
SGT Kane I hear what you are saying about informal awards. Still some do mean a lot to the joes. I have a CSM for merit coin from an NCO whose career kept crossing my path and who I deeply respect which means a helluva a lot more to me than the visiting four-star coin I got for just doing what I thought was my job. (Sometimes I wonder if it means more to me then some of the other service medals I got)
all fargled up.
I axed round here about the badge. Originally I thought it may have been some old type insignia that NTC used to use for its Soviet style OPFOR, but that wasn’t it.
JD11B – Have to apply for the Cold War badge, I believe…. wife applied but has never received one, I never cared enough to pursue it and never applied.
@10 When the 505th deployed to Vietnam it was airborne in name only. Non-airborne qualified draftees were used to replace soldiers who had recently returned from Vietnam.
@39 when I was in the 82nd (2001-2004)you went to jump school first. The story was that a new private was mistakenly assigned to div before jump school and made his cherry jump before going to jump school. After that they made sure u had graduated first.
@10 when the 505th deployed to Vietnam it was an airborne unit in name only. Non-airborne draftees where used to replace soldiers who had recently come back from Vietnam. I assume the 319th was the same.
@39 when I was in the 82nd (2001-2004) you had to go to jump school before you could be assigned to div. Supposedly a new private was mistakenly sent to Bragg first and made his cherry jump before jump school. After that you had to show that you had graduated jump school.
David @ 47 I am with you. If I have to send in for the award it’s not worth having. Kind of like buying challenge coins at the PX. (But I think unit deployment coins are a different story)