Navy Commissioning Pennant

arrestments. However, having spent many years listening to the horror stories related by naval aviators, your author is of the opinion that a suitable award after every trap would not be entirely out of the question.

The matter of the ribbon’s layout is quite interesting since it is based directly on the operational environment rather than the usual lofty ethereal concepts (e.g.: bravery, patriotism, honor, fortitude, etc.). The basic color of the design is green which refers to the horizontal datum lights of the landing lens, the yellow, red and amber stripes allude to the landing lens reference cells ("too high," "too low, .... wave-off," etc.) and the black lines bring to mind the four arresting wires on the carrier deck.

A final comment about the ribbon’s future would be appropriate here. Had the award been approved when originally conceived, it might have been seriously impacted by a new Joint Precision Landing System (JPALS) recently ordered by the Navy to be installed in all of its carriers by Northrup-Grumman, the author’s alma mater. In addition, rumors have existed for many years suggesting a reduction in the number of arresting wires to three. One can only imagine having to change a ribbon’s design because the heraldry didn’t match the new product.

Along the lines of the previously-discussed Navy First Jack Ribbon, Figure 6 depicts a recommendation for a ribbon to celebrate the commissioning of a new capital ship into the Fleet and shows the commissioning pennant flown by the ship. Once again, no actual requirements were ever documented but one can speculate that the members of the pre-commissioning work-up team, the first permanent crew as well as the officials who participate in the ceremony would be recipients of the new award.

The final item in this segment (items proposed but never developed) has been subtitled "The Day the United States Army Air Force Tried to Take Over the World" (see Figure 7). It chronicles the not-so-subtle desire of the soon-to-be independent post-World War II Air Force to overwhelm the decorations world with 14 new awards unique to that new service branch. The list included:

1. Air Medal of Honor 2. Air Service Cross (Gold) 3. Aviation Cross (Gold) 4. Aviation Cross (Silver) 5. Air Service Cross (Silver) 6. Distinguished Flying Cross (Silver) 7. Air Service Medal (Silver) 8. Distinguished Flying Cross (Bronze)

Navy Commissioning Pennant

Navy Commissioning Ribbon (two proposals)

Figure 6: More proposed United States Navy awards that were never developed.

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9. Air Medal (Silver) 10. Aviation Medal (Silver) 11. Air Service Medal (Bronze) 12. Air Medal (Bronze) 13. Aviation Medal (Bronze) 14. Air Achievement Ribbon

Only a few of these actually survived into the United States Air Force era, namely the Medal of Honor, Air Force Cross (Air Service Cross on the list) and Aerial Achievement Ribbon (Medal). The rest either fell into obscurity or were absorbed into the previously-existing awards system (i.e.: Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal).

4. Medal Clasp and Ribbon Devices

The ribbon and medal appurtenances examined here have been afforded their own segment since they seem to fall into all of the previously-discussed areas. To begin with, there is the item known as "The Little Clasp that Never Was" which appeared on a Department of Defense Medal Chart in 1967 (see Figure 8). This is obviously a case of an overzealous chartmaker rushing a medallic item to press before it was formally sanctioned. If approved, it would have only been the second combat clasp authorized since World War II (the WAKE ISLAND clasp being the other). However, once the error was discovered, the clasp was never heard from

Air Medal of Honor

Air Service Cross (Gold)

Aviation Cross (Gold)

Aviation-Cross (Silver)

Air Service Dist. Flying Air Medal Cross (Silver) Cross (Silver) (Silver)

Figure 7: Proposed United States Air Force awards that were never developed.

Vol. 61, No. 3 (May-June 2010)

BRONZE ARROWHEAD

IArmy-Aff Farro)

BERLIN AIRLIFT DEVICE

30 September 1949~

OAK LEAF CLUSTER

{Army-Air Force)

HOUR GLASS DEVICE

FLEET MARINE CORPS COMBAT OPERATIONS INSIGNIA

FLEET MARINE CORPS COMBAT OPERATIONS INSIGNIA

For Navy personnel attached to Fleet Marine Force Units participating in combat operations.

Ultimate Ribbon Device

Figure 8: The "Little Clasp that Never Was" and the device that was finally approved.

again and the Fleet Marine Corps Combat Operations Insignia, the familiar bronze eagle, globe and anchor, was approved as the appropriate ribbon device.

Next in line is the proposed expansion of devices used on the Navy Presidential Unit Citation to differentiate between Navy and Marine Corps recipients (Figure 9). That part seems straightforward but there is no mention of the color of the star that would indicate a sixth award. To alleviate this problem, it would appear that the Navy Department simply sidestepped the issue by limiting the maximum number of awards a man could receive to five.

Figure 10 outlines a proposed change to the only United States award ever established for women. Found in The Institute of Heraldry’s files was a proposal to expand the effective dates of the Women’s Army Corps Service Medal past the end of World War II to October, 1978 the date when the Women’s Army Corps was terminated as

a separate branch of the Army. The document outlined the use of the familiar bronze service star as an additional award device as follows:

1. Service in the Women Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) from 1942-1943 ........... 1 bronze star.

2. Service in BOTH WAAC and the Woman’s Army Corps (WAC) from 1943-1944 ...... 2

bronze stars. 3. Normal tour of duty in WAC at anytime between

1945 and 1978 ............................... NO device.

The only glaring shortcoming in the above scheme is the discrepancy in the use of the star devices essentially for one year each and the total absence of any recognition for 33 years of service.

And as a final item for consideration, take the case of the devices proposed for the Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal. One might excuse the lack of

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