Movie Magic – Seven Days in May

Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in Seven Days in May (1964)

We’re gonna take another look at the awards and decorations displayed by fictional characters on screen. Today’s subject is the military thriller Seven Days in May (1964). This film catches two Hollywood legends on screen together at the height of their stardom, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Lancaster plays the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General James Mattoon Scott. Douglas plays one of his chief aides, Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps Colonel Martin “Jiggs” Casey.

The plot of the movie sees Scott organizing a military coup to oust the President after the latter pushes a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union through the Senate. The coup will be conducted under the guise of a secret military exercise. Meanwhile, Casey stumbles across some messages that have him questioning just what the exercise is about. He goes on to deduce and unravel the scheme.

Both actors, as with a lot of men (if not most) of their generation, had worn the nation’s uniforms during WWII. Douglas had served as an officer in the Navy, discharged for medical reasons (prematurely detonated depth charge) as a lieutenant (junior grade). Lancaster was in the Army as a special services troop (an entertainer), who was discharged as a technician, 5th grade (equivalent of a corporal).

Col Jiggs Casey

We get many good looks at the “fruit salad” (as one of the characters calls it) on Jiggs Casey’s uniform. He’s a senior USMC officer on an important staff assignment in D.C. Which is to say that he’s better positioned than most colonels to get a star. He mentions he’s “been a Marine for 18 years.” We must thus take a moment to note this movie takes place in the present day, which is to say 1964. That means he entered service somewhere around 1946, perhaps as early as 1945. Douglas was 48 years old, so his character is probably somewhere close to that.

Eighteen years to make it to colonel in the Marine Corps and to be appointed Director of the JCS is an impressive level of movement, but not beyond the realm of possibility. Though it probably stretches the imagination a tad.

We can see Casey is wearing a Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, and Purple Heart as his senior three decorations. It looks to my eyes that he’s got a Navy Commendation Medal before his service and campaign medals. Among those awards I see the American Defense Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the WWII Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal, an NDSM, and Korean Service Medal. His only foreign award is a Korean Presidential Unit Citation. There are three campaign stars on the APCM and four on the KSM.

As a hard charging Marine veteran of WWII and Korea, the awards shown are pretty much spot on. The problem is that you would be hard-pressed to have joined the Corps, made it through officer training, shipped to the Pacific Theater, and participated in the three campaigns there all within the first eight months of 1945. The inclusion of an American Defense Medal was awarded for active service between 8 Sept 1939 (the start of WWII) and 7 December 1941.

We’ve already established that Casey couldn’t have been in the service before WWII. Perhaps Colonel Casey had a break in service. This wasn’t unheard of. Many men demobilized after the war and went into the reserves. It’s possible that Casey’s commend on “18 years” of service is in reference to only his active duty years. I’ve written about several men who were veterans of WWII, went into the reserves, then were recalled to active duty for Korea, and remained on active duty thereafter. If Casey joined the Corps in…say 1941…as a 24-year old man, served four years, and went into the reserves, we’d come pretty close to fitting our fictional timeline. A recall to active duty in 1950 for Korea and continued active service from then would see our colonel get 14 more years of active duty. This fits our timeline and explains overseas service in both wars. It also helps explain how he could have been given his rank and billet with just 18 years of service.

Closeup of General Scott’s awards and decs

At one point on screen, Scott is introduced as a recipient of the “Medal of Honor and two Distinguished Service Crosses”, and described as “six times wounded”, and only wearing “half the medals he earned.”

Firstly, we can see Scott’s command pilot’s wings, to be expected of a USAF CJCS. We cannot see if there’s a Medal of Honor ribbon, it could be hidden behind the lapel, but it would normally be worn on another row higher. It’s the sort of ribbon a recipient is expected to wear.

The highest award we can see is the previously mentioned DSC, an Army Distinguished Service Medal, an unidentified medal, a Distinguished Flying Cross (w/ 2 OLCs), an Air Medal (1 silver OLC and 2 bronze), what looks to be a Purple Heart (w/ some OLCs), an AF Outstanding Unit Award, and then his campaign medals. According to the character’s on-screen bona fides, we’re missing the MoH (though it could be hidden), and an OLC on his DSC.

For service awards we get an American Defense Medal, European-African-Middle East Campaign Medal (no campaign stars), the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (four campaign stars), American Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal, Army of Occupation, the Medal for Humane Action (w/ Berlin Airlift Device), NDSM, Korean Service Medal (no campaign stars), and a United Nations Service Medal (for the Korean War).

These service and campaign medals align with an officer who was in the service before our entry into WWII, saw significant overseas service during the war, was part of the occupation, and then participated in the Berlin Airlift. He had service in Korea, but not in any identified campaigns, so maybe as a mid-career staff officer. Which for a highly decorated hero of the previous war is to be expected.

Next we look at Scott’s foreign awards. His first is a British Distinguished Flying Cross (the one with slanted stripes). Due to a lack of color it could be an Air Force Cross. The British DFC is similar to our DFC, but requires the acts of gallantry to be in the face of the enemy, while the AFC (which ranks immediately below the DFC in the British honours system) is for aerial bravery not in combat. I think the former is more likely.

I’m not sure what the final six awards are in the bottom two rows. The ones with rosettes on them are likely to include the French Legion of Honor (the rosette indicates the grade of officer). The ones with palm leaves are most likely French Croix de Guerres. On that award we can see there are three palms, with one either silver or gold. A bronze palm (we see two here) would indicate a citation at the army-level. A silver palm replaced five bronze (so we’d have seven total awards here). A gold one is a citation at the level of the Free French Forces (which is to say at the level of de Gaulle himself).

Overall, this award rack (despite missing the obvious omission of an OLC on his DSC) is pretty dang accurate for the story they want to convey.

Category: Movie Magic