Gift from a Indochina/Algeria veteran

[hoover]

Hurra, a little bit of christmas today.

A friend of mine told me that he is knowing a former Legionaire in my town. I managed to visit him todays afternoon. He is a very old man and served in Indochina and Algeria until 1962 when he got a honorable discharge. He has no pictures of him, but after a while he showed me a small cardboard box. And what was inside?





His epaulettes (made in 1945!), his fourragieres (Legion of honor, Medaille militaire and Croix de Guerre OE) and his medals and 2 badges (5 REI and the other I don´t knowing yet).

I think he noticed that I knwe a lot of the wars he served in, and at the end of our session he gave me the box. "I don´t need them anymore and there is nobody I can give them."

The medals are:
Medaille Coloniale
medaille commemorative afrique du nord
Croix combattant
Croix de Guerre EO
Medaille Corps Expeditionanaire Francaise EO Indochine
the last one with the red star is unknown to me.

I will visit him once as week in future, it is sad to see him sitting alone.

Bye
Frank

[hoover]

Just got the info about the medal with the red star: It is a wound badge.

[cookie]

Nice grouping Frank, Be good to see it all on a battle dress blouse...

[hoover]

You got it! I am looking for a mle46 blouse now.

[hoover]

Got today a nice uniform lot and used one of the mle 46 to add the veterans medals.

Unfortunately the mle 46 is a little bit too small, so it doesn´t fit the tailor body, so I have to use another one soon.

The shirt is dated 1953, the mle 46 blouse 1959, but thatnis okay because 2 of the medals are for the Algerian war.

The green Legions tie is missing, as the 2 ecuissons for a Caporal. But I am looking for these...

[hoover]

Sad news, the old chap died last week. There are no known familiy relatives.

[marsouin]

-The insignia with the eagle is the one of the 1er REI-1ier regiment Etranger d'Infanterie-
-The croix de guerre has traces of 3 small stars that were worn on its ribbon.
-The Medaille des blessés had 1 red star on its ribbon
-The Medaille coloniale should have a small metal bar across the ribbon wearing "Extreme Orient"
-Usually all the medals are worn in order of precedence,sewn on a piece of black thick cloth.This piece of black cloth has 3 small hooks on its back for providing easier fixing and removal on the parade tunic.
-According to the Legeion Etrangere tradition,the end of the fourrageres should be tied not back on the shoulder but on the 2nd button closing the jacket.
Nice set BTW!!!!

[hoover]

Hi Marouin,

I fixed the fourragieres after some pictures. I ever thought that only on parade order the fourragieres were fixed to the buttonhole.

I will alter it soon. Thank you.

The stars, palms etc are missing. I couldn´t find them in the cardbox.

Bye
Frank

[Legion Etrangere]

Extremely sad hearing about this Legion hero passing. This is an all too common occurrence, even here in the U.S. (even with Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan). Nations commonly forgot about them and let them drift into history ... damn sad.

Mick