US Special Ops Command Challenge Coin
English: The United States Marine Corps’ “”. Image from Northwest Territorial Mint Challenge Coin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
US Special Ops Command Challenge Coin
See More Medal | Medals Of America
Uncle Sam Defend Country
USA Military Challenge Coins
A challenge coin is a small coin or medallion (usually military), bearing an organization’s insignia or emblem and carried by the organization’s members. Traditionally, they are given to prove membership when challenged and to enhance morale. In addition, they are also collected by service members. In practice, challenge coins are normally presented by unit commanders in recognition of special achievement by a member of the unit. They are also exchanged in recognition of visits to an organization. [1]
Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor From Wikipedia
English: Picture of the medal of honor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President in the name of Congress, and is conferred only upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States.”[1] Due to the nature of its selection criteria, it is often awarded posthumously, with more than half of all awards since 1941 given to individuals who were deceased.[5] As the award citation includes the phrase “in the name of Congress”, it is sometimes erroneously called the “Congressional Medal of Honor“. The official title, however, is simply the “Medal of Honor”.[6][7]
Members of all branches of the armed forces are eligible to receive the medal, and there are three different versions (one for the Army, one for the Air Force, and one for the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard). The Medal of Honor is presented directly to the recipient (or for posthumous awards, to the next of kin) by the President of the United States on behalf of the US Congress, a procedure and ceremony intended to represent and recognize the gratitude not just of the American government, but of the American people as a whole. Due to its honored status, the medal is afforded special protection under U.S. law.[8]
English: Congressional Medal of Honor Navy/Marines (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Medal of Honor is one of only two military neck order awards issued by the United States, and is the only neck order that is awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces. The Commander’s Degree of the Legion of Merit is a neck order of the US, but it is only authorized for issue to foreign dignitaries.[9] Read More http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medal_of_Honor
US Air Force Medal Honor
Southern Confederate Cross of Honor
Southern Confederate Cross of Honor
William Pelham Civil War (Medal of Honor)
William R. Pelham (December 24, 1845 or December 8, 1847 – March 30, 1933[1]) was a Union Navy sailor during the American Civil War and a recipient of the United States military‘s highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions at the Battle of Mobile Bay.
Medal of Honor Citation
Rank and Organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: Halifax, Nova Scotia. Enlisted in: Nova Scotia. G.O. No.: 45, December 31, 1864.
Citation:
On board the flagship U.S.S. Hartford during successful actions against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram CSS Tennessee (1863) in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. When the other members of his guncrew were killed or wounded under the enemy’s terrific shellfire, Pelham calmly assisted the casualties below and voluntarily returned and took his place at an adjoining gun where another man had been struck down. He continued to fight his gun throughout the remainder of the battle which resulted in the capture of the Tennessee.[3]
66-50-D Italy Knight Grand Cross of the Military Order of Italy
The insignia of a Military Knight of Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Accession: 66-50-D
Medal, Badge, Italy, Knight Grand Cross of the Military Order of Italy.
Medal awarded to FADM C. Nimitz
Collection of Curator Branch, Naval History and Heritage Command.
![[Medal of Honor] (LOC)](https://i0.wp.com/farm3.static.flickr.com/2345/2179929158_c7354ae8e6_m.jpg "[Medal of Honor] (LOC)")
[Medal of Honor] (LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress)
Grand Cross of the Iron Cross
Grand Cross of the Iron Cross – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Grand Cross of the Iron Cross was a decoration intended for victorious generals of the Prussian Army and its allies. It was the highest class of the Iron Cross. Along with the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class, the Grand Cross was founded on March 10, 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars. It was renewed in 1870 for the Franco-Prussian War and again in 1914 for World War I. In 1939, when Adolf Hitler renewed the Iron Cross as a German, rather than Prussian, decoration, the Grand Cross was again renewed.
The Grand Cross of the Iron Cross was twice the size of the Iron Cross and was worn from a ribbon around the neck. The later Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, instituted in 1939, was also worn from the neck; it was smaller than the Grand Cross but larger than the Iron Cross
Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (later to reign briefly as Kaiser Friedrich III)
wearing the 1870 Grand Cross of the Iron Cross.
Five men received the 1813 Grand Cross of the Iron Cross for actions during the Napoleonic Wars:
- Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, commander of Prussian forces at the Battle of Waterloo, later elevated to the Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross
- Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow
- Crown Prince Charles John of Sweden (Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte) – earlier a Marshal under Napoleon, after becoming regent and crown prince of Sweden, he joined the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon.
- Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien
- Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg.
1870 Grand Cross of the Iron Cross
1914 Grand Cross of the Iron Cross.
The Iron Cross was renewed again on August 5, 1914. There were five recipients of the 1914 Grand Cross in the First World War:
- Kaiser Wilhelm II
- Paul von Hindenburg, later elevated to the Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross
- Erich Ludendorff
- Prince Leopold of Bavaria
- August von Mackensen
1939 Grand Cross
Adolf Hitler reinstituted the Iron Cross as a German decoration in September 1939, with the Grand Cross again as the highest grade (above the various classes of the Knight’s Cross). Hermann Göring became the only recipient of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II when it was awarded to him on July 19, 1940. The Grand Cross – when Hitler originally re-instituted it – was supposed to have been outlined in gold, but this was changed to silver before Göring was awarded his. Göring – who loved amassing medals – felt that the Grand Cross he received from Hitler was not really grand enough, so he had copies made – one with platinum edges – which he wore. The original awarded Grand Cross was destroyed in an air raid in 1943. Göring was wearing his platinum-edged one at the time of his surrender in 1945. Shortly before his suicide, Hitler deprived Göring of the Grand Cross because he felt betrayed by him. Also, Göring had the curious habit of not wearing the Grand Cross at times (generally whenever the Luftwaffe was not performing well).[citation needed]
The award case for the 1939 Grand Cross had a red leather exterior, which was embossed with a gold Reich Eagle. The bottom interior of the case was lined in black velvet.
An even higher decoration, the Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, was intended to be presented to the most successful German general of World War II once Germany achieved victory. Awarded only twice (to Field Marshals Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and Paul von Hindenburg), a prototype 1939 Star was discovered by the Allies in 1945. It is currently on display with Göring’s Reichsmarschall baton in the West Point Military Collection.
Various iterations from 1813 to 1870
Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross
Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross –From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Awarded by the Führer and Reichskanzler of the Third Reich | |
| Type | Neck order |
| Eligibility | Military personnel |
| Awarded for | Awarded to holders of the Iron Cross to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership |
| Campaign | World War II |
| Status | Obsolete |
| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1 September 1939 |
| First awarded | 30 September 1939 |
| Last awarded | 11 May 1945 / 17 June 1945[Notes 1] |
| Posthumous awards |
Swords: 15 Oak Leaves: 95 Knight’s Cross: |
| Distinct recipients |
Golden Oak Leaves: 1 Diamonds: 27 Swords: 160 Oak Leaves: 890 Knight’s Cross:7,365 |
| Precedence | |
| Next (higher) | Grand Cross of the Iron Cross |
| Next (lower) | Iron Cross 1st Class |
Second Week on Seroquel XR
Well I am now into my second week if Seroquel XR and my wife asked me how I was, I of course replied what do you mean how am I? I am irritable and grumpy and bored to death, I am sitting in my bed with my face buried in my laptop writing war stories for one site and griping and bitching on my own site. I guess I really need to answer her question don’t I? I have been taking it day by day and sometimes in even smaller increments of time like hour by hour, like how I was feeling earlier today, I am still irritable and feel like I have done something wrong, I don’t know where it is coming from and I can’t tell you why I feel this way I just do. It is better for me and everyone around me to be by myself…
View original post 664 more words
Soviet Defense Stalingrad
759,560 Soviet personnel were awarded this medal for the defense of Stalingrad from 22 December 1942.
German Order (decoration)
German Order (decoration)
The German Order (German: Deutscher Orden) was the most important award that the Nazi Party could bestow on an individual for “duties of the highest order to the state and party” and designed by Benno von Arent. This award was first made by Adolf Hitler posthumously to Reichsminister Fritz Todt at his funeral in February 1942. A second posthumous award of the German Order was given to SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich at his funeral in June of that same year.
Cynics called the award the “dead hero order” as it was almost always awarded posthumously. The only two persons who received the German Order who survived the war and its consequences were Konstantin Hierl and Arthur Axmann.
The German Order was originally to be awarded in three grades, but only the neck order (the highest grade) was ever awarded. This award ranks the second rarest award in the Third Reich (second only to the National Prize for Art and Science). The holders of this award were supposed to form a confraternity.
Adolf Hitler viewed this award as his personal decoration to be bestowed only upon those whose services to the state and party he deemed worthy. For this reason, plus the fact that the reverse of the medal bears a facsimile of his signature, it was also informally known as the ‘Hitler Order’.
There were in all eleven confirmed recipients of this award between 1942 and 1945. According to some documents, the order was intended to be awarded to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler and Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, but this was never done.
Confirmed Recipients and Date of Award
- Fritz Todt (posthumous), February 12, 1942
- Reinhard Heydrich (posthumous), June 9, 1942
- Adolf Hühnlein (posthumous), June 21, 1942
- Viktor Lutze (posthumous), May 8, 1943
- Adolf Wagner (posthumous) April 17, 1944
- Josef Bürckel (committed suicide September 28, 1944), October 3, 1944
- Rudolf Schmundt (posthumous), October 7, 1944
- Konstantin Hierl, February 24, 1945
- Karl Hanke (killed during a POW escape attempt at a transport, June 8, 1945), April 12, 1945
- Karl Holz (killed in action April 20, 1945), April 19, 1945
- Artur Axmann, April 28, 1945
Ranks and Insignia of the Nazi Party
Screenshot showing World War II era Nazi Party Armbands. Created with Mircosoft Powerpoint & Windows Paint (Windows 7) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
FLMM – Nazi political and civil organizations insignia 1-9 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Drawings of Nazi Party rank insignia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party were paramilitary titles used by the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) between approximately 1928 and the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945. Such ranks were held within the political leadership corps of the Nazi Party, charged with the overseeing the regular Nazi Party members.
The first purpose of the Nazi party political ranks was to provide election district leadership positions during the years where the Nazis were attempting to come to power in Germany. After 1933, when the Third Reich had been established, Nazi Party ranks played a much more important role existing as a political chain of command operating side by side with the German government.
Contrary to modern day cinema and layman perceptions regarding the Nazi Party, which often portrays all Nazis as wearing brown shirts with swastika armbands, Nazi ranks and titles were only used by a small minority within the Party, this being the political leadership corps. Regular Nazi Party members, unconnected with the political leadership, often wore no uniforms at all except for a standard Nazi Party Badge issued to all members (a golden version of this badge also existed for early Nazi Party members).
The history of Nazi Party ranks and insignia can be divided into the ranks used during several different time periods as well as the positions held by senior Nazis who were, by default, the supreme leaders of the Party regardless of what title they choose to call themselves by.
View Ranks, Insignia, and meaning:
Early Nazi Party rank insignia (1930) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Early Nazi Party rank insignia (1930) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The rank insignia for Gauleiter and Reichsleiter, before and after the 1939 insignia change
Heil Weltkriege Privatarchiv
Stars and Stripes
Stratrisks
Европейский ученый и журналист
Stars and Stripes
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Heil World Wars 
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