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amarriageoftrueminds
Steve
looks like he's got: - US pins (upper collar)
- DUI pins (distinctive unit insignia, lapels)
- Parachute badge (the little oval one)
- Purple Heart (with gold oak leaf cluster)
- American Defense Service (for chasing down the saboteur in Brooklyn?) *this one is a mistake!
- Combat Infantryman badge (that’s the big blue one, but that's supposed to be on top! not bottom, as it’s considered the first and most prestigious!)
- Distinguished/Presidential Unit Citation badge (R breast)
Bucky
should have:- US disc pin (R upper collar)
- Infantry disc collar pin (L upper collar, crossed muskets)
- DUI pins (distinctive unit insignia, lapels)
- 107th Regimental insignia badge (L bicep)
- Combat Infantryman badge
- if Steve's got a purple heart he'd probably have one too (minus oak leaf?)
- maybe a red/white good-conduct ribbon
- a Mediterranean theater ribbon (with a bronze battle star per campaign, and bronze arrowhead for amphibious assault landings at Sicily, etc.)
- the same parachute badge
- definitely some kind of marksmanship badge (below ribbon rack)
- Distinguished/Presidential UC on R
Steve would also have a Medal of Honour or two somewhere; possibly only post-Valkyrie.
Further Info:
The 2 gold bars on his epaulettes show that Steve is a Captain.
Bucky’s got his sergeant chevrons on his biceps.👆
(IIRC a deleted scene showed Dum-Dum with chevrons on his sweater sleeve, too? was he a sergeant?)
The long jacket seen in the pub is the dress uniform (a long cavalry-style jacket).
They’re supposed to have gold bars on the sleeve cuff, one for every 6 months spent deployed, and a diagonal below that, sloping the other way, for 3 years (but a lot of guys left these off because- well, they just did. Probably for practical reasons.)
Steve’s jacket is also darker because he’s an officer; in contrast, the standard issue pants for officers were lighter (a combination called the ‘pinks and greens’) but apparently they could wear matching pants if they wanted.
NCOs and enlisted men had matching lighter colour jacket/pants.
The short jacket Steve is also shown in (see above) is from later on in the war; it’s an ‘Ike’ jacket (after General Eisenhower), modelled on British service ‘battle dress’ uniforms, after the Americans realised the long cavalry-style jackets weren’t so practical in combat.
From wikipedia:
“However, development and approval by the Army was slow. Except for small runs of jackets made for soldiers in England, the U.S. Army did not provide the jacket as an issue item to enlisted soldiers until the war in Europe was almost over.”
So Steve probably has that jacket because he’s in England in Nov 1943.
What’s Missing:
- Steve’s lower lapel pins, the DUIs, don't seem to match up to any RL unit so IMO they are meant to signify the SSR.
- (Explaining why Bucky doesn’t have any in The Whip & Fiddle scene; he hasn’t become part of the SSR yet.)
- Unlike the SSR pins, DUIs would usually be a bit bigger and more colourful, enameled, featuring your unit’s motto, but they weren’t issued so much later on due to metal shortages.
- Typically you’d keep your original pins even if deployed to another unit. So, say, Jim Morita might have signal corps pins but still be deployed to an infantry regiment.
- (Jim would have a pin on his L breast saying ‘Ranger’ too!)
- Steve should also have a Mediterranean Theater ribbon, too.
- Sometimes they would wear a former unit/combat patch on the R bicep (apparently a lot of US soldiers nicked the 'FRANCE' patch to wear, supposed to be for just the Free French guys, if they'd fought in France; so Steve and Bucky might have that too? Dernier definitely would! Maybe he’d give them to Steve and Bucky as a thank you? The other Howlies might have kept their previous unit patches, too.)
- And they'd usually also have a big gaudy colourful embroidered patch, to show their current unit assignment, worn on their L bicep.
- Picture something like this:
- but instead the Howling Commandos have the little wings off Steve’s Cap stage uniform (or, alternately, the wings off the eagle in the SSR logo 👇, ugh) while Steve has a star.
The wings kinda resemble the old Honda logo, so make of that what you will?? (Maybe Morita was a big whup in Japan after the war and it was inspired by him??)
NB:
Other medals he or the Howlies could’ve got range from:
Army Commendation
Joint Service Commendation medals (for being part of a joint Allied taskforce),
more Purple Hearts,
Silver Stars (3rd most prestigious; for actions over a brief period/couple of days),
Bronze Stars,
Army Distinguished Service Cross (2nd most prestigious).
And these all could have bronze oak leaf clusters for each repeat award, or ‘V’ Devices added for valour.
Ardennes-Alsace campaign citation (if they were part of the Battle of the Bulge.)
Also, they might have the Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC, pronounced ‘muck’) square embroidered patch (worn on the right lower sleeve, looks like a laurel wreath) for meritorious conduct in combat for over six continuous months.
Legion of Merit
Perhaps even another Medal of Honor (most prestigious, see below; basically if you can include the words "with no regard for his personal safety-?!” in the middle of a long description of some absolutely insane shit he did to protect his fellow men, take out an enemy gun single-handed, etc. then... yeah. Medal of Honor.)
Post-war, they’d all qualify for:
- the World War II Victory Medal
- American Campaign Medal
- Army of Occupation Medal (for the Howlies who stayed in Europe.)
- and POW Medals too, in the ‘80s.
Sidenote on Gabe and Morita:
Which they might have kept in the form of their pins and/or patches but now worn on R bicep.
There’s a good chance that Gabe and Jim would be overlooked for their major medals because of racism, and only awarded posthumously or very late in life; unless Frenchy, Monty, and Dum-dum were able to exert influence in their favour.
(Bucky might get a POW M. posthumously, have it taken away because his conduct during captivity was deemed not ‘honourable’ post-WS, then re-rewarded if/when he was exonerated? 😵)
.
RIBBONS:
Purple Heart
(For sustaining an injury in combat (or dying). This shows us that Steve gets credit for injuries even if his serum has fully healed them! In the sunlit photo you can see Steve’s ribbon has a little gold oak leaf cluster on it; which means multiple commendations/PHs. It would be interesting to consider whether he might qualify for another for dying if, eg. his heart had technically stopped post-Valkyrie. If Bucky didn’t have a PH already, he would either have one awarded posthumously, or have a cluster added to his existing ribbon after being ‘KIA.’ Also you best believe Bucky had Opinions when he first saw Steve wearing an official ‘I have had my dumb ass injured multiple times, yay!!’ badge on his stupid chest.)
Good Conduct
(Something tells me Steve would never manage to get one of these, not in his whole damn life. 🤣)
European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
(These cover a lot of ground, including the Med and Normandy; iirc you’d have small bronze stars stuck on this ribbon; one per campaign you were in. Bucky’s first would’ve probably been Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. He would receive a bronze arrowhead on this, per two amphibious landings. These medals only started being a thing once the US got into Italy, so guys who’d already fought in Africa tended to look down their noses at the rookies coming in, being given an ‘Africa’ medal despite only having fought in Italy.)
.
American Defense Service Medal
This one is a mistake!
(Steve shouldn’t have this, because it was only created to recognise those who served between September 8, 1939, and December 7, 1941 (when America entered the war). Steve didn’t even enlist until June 14, 1943! IMO, that yellow ribbon should be a red, white, blue n’ black American Campaign Medal, instead:
I think they gave Steve the yellow to suggest he was ‘deployed’ on American soil (and look! the figure’s got a round shield!) So they’d be counting his anti-sabotage action in Brooklyn, here.)
Medal of Honor:
(So important you get a whole damn necklace! It also comes with loads of special privileges, like:
his name on the Medal of Honor Roll,
an extra pension of $1,388 a month on top of what he’s already owed,
clothing allowance,
10% bump in retirement pay,
special lD cards,
free flights,
interment at Arlington National Cemetery (where the headstone would be gilded),
free invites to all presidential balls and inaugurations,
a special license plate,
perks for next of kin,
and the fact that all uniformed service personnel are supposed to salute him, even if they’re not in uniform and are of higher rank!)
Possible Badges:
Combat Infantryman Badge
(worn above ribbons on L. These have 1 star added at the top of the oak-leaf wreath per campaign, going up as high as a rare 4 stars. This starless version tells us Steve has only been in combat for one campaign, so far, which, along with the purple heart & presidential citation badge, tells you he did something damn heroic his first time out! I think Bucky’s and the Howlies’ CIBs would have more stars than Steve’s, because they’ve been in more than one campaign; they might have one for N. Africa/Italy, another for Normandy, etc. As the oldest, Dum-dum might have the most stars.)
Parachutist badge
(aka the ‘jump wings,’ this is a basic qualifications badge, not a combat badge; so it means Steve has completed basic parachutist school. Or, that he hasn’t, but the fact he did a combat jump anyway while rescuing Bucky means the higher-ups have had to award him one of these ^ or else admit he was AWOL and then have to court martial him. 😄 Knowing Steve he would start jumping without a parachute just to be a shit until they gave him one.
I can’t see it in the pics, but Steve’s badge should have a single bronze star on the shroud lines, to indicate a single combat jump. (You add more bronze stars on the wings per combat jump, switching to one big gold one on the ‘chute after 5). Reading between the lines, and given Steve has no eg. marksmanship badges, we can guess he did something damn heroic his first time out, in combat, and that it involved a parachute jump.
PB/JWs also have bigger silver stars added, above the ‘chute, as the qualification rises per certain number of jumps completed, in certain conditions such as eg. night time (up to 30 iirc), so might be different by the end of the war. Monty would have the Brit equivalent but probably of higher rank than the other Howlies, because he’s originally part of an airborne unit.)
.
Marksmanship
These are for Riflemen.
This is going L-R in reverse-order of importance, depending on how well you qualify: Expert>Sharpshooter>Marksman. You can only have 3 of these badges, max, and you add another clasp/bar beneath it, on those rings (also to a maximum of three) one for each weapon you’re qualified in, even if you’re proficient in the use of way more than three weapons.
These aren’t badges you can just get and keep; you have to keep re-qualifying, and you can be demoted back down levels.Super-sniper Bucky would probably end up with quite a ladder set on his chest! He might have a ‘Sharpshooter’ badge before Krausberg, but the next time he re-ups, post-serum, shoots all his qualifications up to get an ‘Expert.’ There’s a similarly set-up badge set for vehicles qualifications, with clasps for vehicle types. Dum-dum and Gabe might get one for tank-driving! 😅)
*edit*
IIRC the ‘expert’ rank was introduced later into the war, post D-Day, as a morale boosting exercise after the land invasion of Normandy cost a huge number of Infantry lives (relative to air and navy). Another reaction to this death toll was:
“Infantry commanders described them as outstanding riflemen and wished they could obtain more African American platoons. Their bravery under fire soon won them the respect of the white soldiers of adjacent platoons, some of whom remarked that they liked to fight alongside the Black platoons because they laid such a large volume of fire on enemy positions.”
