question on dd 214

[cwartyman]

I resized the pics so they load better sorry for having them so large.
Mack

[Oyaji]

Oyaji, thank you for your explanation. I am in the uncomfortable position of having, like John Kerry, a DD-215. My DD-214 has the wrong SSN; realized that about 25 years out when the US Navy said, " And you are... WHO?!?" I got that corrected and at the same time turned in my 2nd Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for a VSM. (Thank you to the Saigon Embassy Marines who got that one passed!) I ordered some miniature medals from Medals of America and I was a little questioning myself about that star device. It looks very salty and I had them tart it up with an EGA device, which I am real proud of. I guess they know what they are doing at that outfit.

That's correct.....those that served in Operation FREQUENT WIND, the evacuation of Saigon (29-30 Apr 1975) have the option of wearing either the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal or the Vietnam Service Medal for that particular campaign. Ref: Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual, SECNAVINST 1650.1G

http://study.schleppingsquid.net/Fil...ST-1650.1G.pdf

[John Sukey]

Griff. your records are NOTHING like Kerry's. Your service was honorable.

[Griff Murphey]

Yes, well, it took a long time for the awards for the Vietnam and Cambodia evacuations to drift in. I had none when I left ACDU not even a National Defense (gee dunk) medal, only marksmanship, despite having 27 days in a hostile fire zone (granted, not much!) and the Indochina Service block checked. Received MUC, Humanitarian service, 2 awards of the Armed Forces Exped. Medal, and Sea service ribbon over a 2 year period in the late 70's, from an official U.S. Government representative; my postman. I checked into the VSM when I was reading info about the swap on the Saigon Embassy Marines' website. They always told us to check our DD-214 for errors and I missed the fact that the NRDC Admin at Camp Pendleton torqued me over by screwing up my SSN. Ultimately I had to go to my local Congresswoman to get my records reviewed and corrected, which included finally the Geedunk medal and the swap of the AFEM go VSM; took right at 30 years. I enjoy wearing my miniature medals on occasion especially for the Royal Flying Corps Ceremony I do here for the WW-1 guys we have buried here, because our Canadian and Brit civilian dignitaries often wear theirs. A friend, an Army doctor who stayed stateside, ribs me about it and says I look like a Russian Field Marshal!

[cwartyman]

What you are entitled to wear is a good thing, those that ridicule it generally dont have anything to wear on their chests. I actually rate another medal the Kuwaiti version of the KLM and another ribbon a Muc. Since my dd-214 doesnt have them on it i will not wear them. Have to get around to getting My dd-214 updated and a new one issued.
Mack

[Griff Murphey]

I believe you will receive a DD-215. I think you only get one DD-214.

I don't think any of us had any control over what we were asked to do. We just obeyed our orders. Any awards we received were for doing our job.