I recently received notification from the Dept. of the Navy that my deceased father was awarded the CAR for his service with the Navy in WWII. I had sent in documentation from his personnel record over two years ago showing the combat he was in as a Naval Armed Guard on Merchant Marine ships in the north Atlantic ( sub attacks ), north Africa ( artillery ), Okinawa ( kamikazes ) and at Normandy. The Armed Guard had one of the highest casualty rates of any military organization in WWII. The CAR was first authorized for Sailors , Marines , and Coast Guard when operating under the Navy in Feb of 1969 and was made retroactive to Dec. 7, 1941 by Bill Clinton in Oct of 1999. It was difficult getting the Navy to give him the medal. I got all kind of reasons why they wouldn't do it but in the end they did what was right. It helped that I had copies of his personnel record from the Military Records Repository in St. Louis and had logs from the ships he was on ( except for Normandy ) that I got from the National Archives. I found a good county VSO who was a bit of a pro vet pit bull herself and a good congress woman's aide ( Michelle Bachmann ) who was a vet herself and since has gone back on active duty. I am writing this because I feel good about winning and because there are probably Viet Nam vets who served before Feb of 69 or vets from Korea, and WWII who might benefit from getting the recognition they deserve. Here is a link to a description of the CAR :
Combat Action Ribbon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Combat Action Ribbon
Linear Mode
