Badges and Military Medals

Twenty some years ago when I published my Wisconsin Military and Civil Medals book I had one fellow in particular tell me that badges had no place in a medals book. I told him that I considered retirement badges to be civilian awards and since it was my book my rules apply. Still I wish I had this group back then. I would have liked to ask him if he would break up such a group. Would he not mention the badges in this group if he listed the group in a military medals book.. Illustrated below is the group of a WWII Marine who became the sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin in the early 1980’s. The regular medals are nothing exciting but the Philippine liberation medal is somewhat unusual for a marine I’m told. The Sons of the American Revolution medals are also interesting as is the VFW medal none of which I can remember ever seeing before. The badges are spectacular. The large one is the sheriff’s personal named badge and the smaller badge is his retirement badge which has his dates of service, 1946-1983. This shows that after active duty with the Marines he signed on with the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department which leads me to a final observation; there is no Good Conduct Medal in his group! Maybe he would have received a Good Conduct Medal if he had reenlisted ? The group may not be complete so I have filed a request for information about his medals with military records archive in St. Louis. So let’s think positive. I’ll keep you posted.