Mr. Carlson, Thank you previously for your assistance a while back with my grandfather's WW2 service. I just received a copy of his DD214 and found the following under 24. Service, and was wondering if you could help decipher. There is no listing for the SS Joseph Murgas on his DD214. My dad said that my grandfather made mention that he never received a Normandy Campaign pin and that this was due to his changing ship just prior to the campaign. My goal is to see if he in fact qualifies for this pin, and to have it awarded posthumously. Any help you can provide toward this would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post. His service listing is as follows verbatim and exact (as best as I can read it):
Posted by Ron Carlson on April 9, 2015, 3:03 pm, in reply to "Help with deciphering DD 214" Edited by board administrator April 9, 2015, 3:08 pm
Pete,
Thank you for your inquiry, which has led me on an interesting chase.
First of all, I readily admit I am no expert at military acronyms, if only because I never served in the military. But I have become pretty good at Google searches. So here is what I have been able to decipher (a very apt verb) from your grandfather’s service record.
To my surprise, considering that I understand your grandfather was in the U.S. Naval Armed Guard, at least while aboard SS JOSEPH MURGAS, I’m seeing a whole lot of likely references to the U.S. Coast Guard:
CGC 407 = Coast Guard cutter #407? [see #1 below] CG 80301 = Coast Guard vessel #80301 [see #1 below] CG 82002 = Coast Guard vessel #82002 [see #2 below] CG 83513 = Coast Guard vessel #83513 [see #3 below] CG RESFLO = Coast Guard Rescue Flotilla [see #3 below] COTP NORVA = [Coast Guard] Captain of the Port, Norfolk, Virginia (possibly: NORfolk, VirginiA) CGAS ELIZ CITY = Coast Guard Air Station, Elizabeth City [North Carolina] DCGO1ND: GROUP = no information SCITUATE: SEPCEN #1 = [U.S. Navy or U.S. Coast Guard] Separation Center, Scituate, Massachusetts
Also: RECSTA NY = Receiving Station New York. There were U.S. Navy Receiving Stations, where personnel reported for training and assignment, in Brooklyn; New York City (Manhattan?); and Lido Beach, Long Island (which was the location of an Armed Guard gunnery training site).
RECSTA E.I. = Receiving Station Ellis Island. There was a U.S. Coast Guard Receiving Station at Ellis Island in New York harbor.
SCITUATE: SEPCEN #1 = [U.S. Navy or U.S. Coast Guard] Separation Center, Scituate, Massachusetts, where personnel were processed for discharge from the military.
More details:
#1 – There was a U.S. Coast Guard vessel #407 (more specifically Patrol Craft 407), built by Gibbs Gas Engine Company, Jacksonville, FL, in 1937. That vessel was later designated USCG 80301. As with other ships discussed below, it did not have any name other than its number.
#2 – I have not been able to identify Coast Guard vessel #82002.
#3 – The Coast Guard established a Rescue Flotilla, based in Poole, England, that served admirably during the Normandy D-Day invasion in rescuing soldiers and sailors from damaged or sinking vessels. The Coast Guard assigned to the Rescue Flotilla some 60 patrol boats, including #83513, which served during the D-Day invasion. The vessels were constructed by Wheeler Yacht Company in Brooklyn.
See http://www.uscg.mil/history/cutters/83/83FtHistories.pdf. These vessels were 83 feet long, had a crew of one officer and 13 men, and were originally designed for anti-submarine patrol, coastal convoy escort, and search and rescue. Armament varied but may have included, as of the Normandy invasion, two 30-cal. machine guns. USCG #83513 is described on page 29: “…stationed at Poole, England: [June 1944] assigned to USCG Rescue Flotilla No. 1-served in Normandy Invasion as USCG-58.”
What to make of all this? For one, were U.S. Navy Armed Guard personnel assigned to Coast Guard vessels? I have no idea. Perhaps they were.
Second, if your grandfather served during the Normandy invasion, that service may have come aboard a Coast Guard vessel, presumably USCG-58/83513.
You mention SS JOSEPH MURGAS, aboard which he served as part of the Armed Guard detail at least in the period November 1944-January 1945. Since JOSEPH MURGAS was constructed in September-October 1944, and her maiden voyage was the one that began in November 1944 with your grandfather aboard, his service in this ship was irrelevant to his service at Normandy.
You also mention a “Normandy campaign pin.” I cannot tell from your message exactly what your meaning is, but I am quite certain that there is no official military award by that or similar name. (In my research I came across a “Normandy Campaign Medal,” http://www.medal-medaille.com/normandy-campaign-medal-with-normandy-clasp-miniature-p-10261.html, which appears to be a commercially produced award commissioned by a veterans’ organization in Britain, but I doubt this is what you mean.) If you are aware of a specific award or medal for participating in the Normandy invasion, please enlighten me. That said, military personnel who participated in the Normandy invasion would have been awarded a small star-shaped pin denoting their Normandy service, which would be worn on the ribbon of a different medal.
This is somewhat convoluted but here is how I understand it. In World War II, Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and merchant marine personnel could earn campaign medals corresponding to the geographic areas in which they served. For our purposes here, the relevant campaign medal would be the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European-African-Middle_Eastern_Campaign_Medal). The medal is simply an “I was there” award, you might say, and denotes nothing in the way of meritorious or valorous service. (There were similar campaign medals for service in the Pacific and elsewhere in Asia, and in North, Central or South America. An individual could earn any or all of these awards.) Additionally, within each campaign’s geographic area, the military identified certain “operations” (a series of connected military actions in a specific time and place, such as an invasion), and “engagements” (a single military action limited to a specific time and place, such as a battle or an attack), for which participants could be awarded a device variously known as a service star, battle star or engagement star; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_star. The star, which was bronze in color for the first such issuance, was/is 3/16 inch across and otherwise has no markings. If a person earned five stars, the bronze stars would be replaced by a single silver-colored star (neither to be confused, respectively, with the Bronze Star or Silver Star medals for bravery or valor). Additional bronze and/or silver service stars could be earned with participation in additional operations or engagements. As already noted, the star(s) would be affixed to the ribbon of the corresponding campaign medal.
Within the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign geographic area, a large number of operations and engagements were identified as worthy of participants being able to earn a service star for each such action. See http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/Awards/Awards-IV-16.html, page 63. One of those was the Normandy invasion, for the period June 6-25, 1944. In this document the Normandy invasion is identified by the code E-5. In the same document are lists of Navy and merchant ships that participated in various actions, for which their crews are entitled to a service star, with the ship and its relevant action(s) listed together, using the codes for the various actions. On page 134 of the document one finds USCG 58 (83513, although the number is garbled as 85313 in the list) as having participated in action E-5, the Normandy invasion. So its crew members, presumably including your grandfather, would have received authorization to wear a service star for their participation; your grandfather would have / should have received a citation to that effect. But the star itself is indistinguishable from any other service star and is not of a design or appearance unique to participation in the Normandy invasion.
So as I see it, your grandfather should have received at least (1) the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign medal, for having been in that geographic area, and (2) a bronze service star for his participation in the Normandy invasion. It is possible, of course, that he earned other awards not relevant to this discussion. I note that in your second message board posting, you state that your grandfather’s DD214 includes, at #34, Remarks, “Entitled to wear the … European-African-Middle Eastern, with one star …” This star may very well be the service star that I refer to above, suggesting that he did in fact qualify for a decoration for his Normandy service. Whether he actually physically received both the campaign medal and its star, or whether the family still has them, may be another matter of course.
Insofar as obtaining awards for past military service (whether never awarded or awarded but lost), see this page from the Armed Guard website, http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html, and specifically section II.B. - Awards, Decorations, and Campaign and Service Medals. The last sentence of that section contains a link that will help you in requesting any of your grandfather’s awards.
I apologize for the length and complexity of this response. Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Boatswain's Mate, first class Entitled to wear the American Defense, American Area, European-African-Middle Eastern, with one star, CG GOOD CONDUCT, World War II Victory Ribbon.
His name was Freelon Archibald and you previously found him on the SS Joseph Murgas. His enlistment date was 8-14-41 and net service was 4 yrs, 10 mos, 6 days.