What a nice looking guy, AK. It’s too bad that he died so young. I’m glad that the medal gave your family some peace.

So young to lose his life. Glad you researched this interesting piece of our family history AK! Once you start searching sites lite Ancestery & etc. it’s amazing what you can find.

Zam*

Hi AK Wilks,

not an expert of heraldics, but this is what I know about it:

First: It appears to be gimmick..could be that it had a different meaning in the States, but in European aristocracy the overall combination of the symbols is crap. However the symbols have a meaning each for themselves:

– As you said, it’s a medaillon most likely worn e.g. in a military uniform or a self-created fraternity
– The escutcheon is divided into four parts. This usually happened due to marriages of various families bearing each one escutchenon for themselves (not wanting to give it up). It implies that the escutcheon is rather from 14th-16th than 10th-12th century.
– The KNIGHT (for one fourth) implies that we deal with the rang of knights, which is actually quite one if not the lowest in aristocracy.
– The PLANT, here twice, is a symbol for nature which is here rather representing the nature of perishability but also crop output, source and result, life and death. The size of it’s ‘root’ (everything below zero level) shows how deep the clan is anchored. Not seldomly it represents both, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ at the same time. One might think about occultism, there in deed was differed between white and black aristocracy in the past. The symbol however is very common.
– The standing LION is from one of my ancients. My grandmother was a born Leonhart, one of many decendants of Richard Löwenherz. Read about him, it’s the most beautiful story..he was known for being brave and powerful, even managed to bunk off the heart of a lion when he was attacked by such one. Other sources say his heart was as big as that of a lion (without the bunk off story). Indeed, most of the European kings and queens, including England and Germany resulted from this dynasty (see also ‘Plantaganets’ if you are interested).
– Above the bearing is a crown, implying that we deal with a kingdom family tribe here. This might still be ok with the knight (although unlikely), but the additional bearing of three more symbols is – in that context- absolutely useless. Either it is a monarchy, or it is not. There we have again the lion, plant and star (for Jerusalem or the southern hemisphere) on red and white ground (representing the cleanness and blood of soldiers clothes). Latter is absolutely uncommon in combination with a crowned heraldic sign. The shape of the red/white lines has a regional interpretation ( http://www.familienkunde.at/Wappen_Hera … eichen.htm)

The way the medallion is produced I’d not say it is handmade, is it? Heraldic nevertheless is interesting.

QT

Thanks for your thoughts QT. We pretty much solved the likely origin and meaning, not sure if you read all the previous entries. It is not a family coat of arms. The outer badge relates to national symbols of Belgium, where my uncle died in WWII, and the inner badge relates to the US Army, which he served in.

Seagull & Zam – Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Yes too young to die. But it was an incredible conflict, it touched so many lives. I’m proud he did his part, but sad he never got a chance to come home, start a family and live his life.

Anyway an interesting part of history.

Very interesting. Thanks again to Capricorn, Dag MacLugh , zam, seagull, pink phantom, doranchak and everyone who contributed ideas or helped. I am glad I know the significance of this and members of my family will be glad to know. Thanks. Well we may not be able to solve the Zodiac mystery (yet) but we solved this little mystery. Thanks.

Thank you for sharing this most interesting story with us. Your uncle Phil was very handsome and imo you resemble him very closely if that is your picture next to your name here! It is so sad to see pictures of these brave young men who lost their lives in the all-too many battles that they did not create.

This medallion is invaluable to your family for sentimental reasons, especially now that you have the story to go with it and can appreciate its’ significance. If I may offer some advice, I’d put this part of your family history in writing and keep it safely with the medallion. You may want to bring it out on special occasions when your family is together such as holidays, etc. Thankfully your grandmother appreciated it and kept it safe.

Also when talking with your family members, they might remember other interesting stories and facts which you could easily verify/research on Ancestry.com and end up with an entire family tree for those who are interested.

I’m so glad my mother kept a letter that had been written to her mother by a cousin who was stationed in Europe during WW1. She brought it out from a cedar chest and we read it shortly after the bombs were dropped at Bush’s orders in (forget year but think it was 2003). My mom was in her 90’s then and thankfully very sharp mentally. I can remember clearly watching the events unfold on tv with her at her house and her comments…."hope the President knows what he is doing" and then we talked about this conflict reminding us of Viet Nam when many young men in my generation were being drafted. That is what prompted my mom to show me the letter that had been saved.

I agree it is so sad that he lost his life so early. What a handsome devil I must say! Happy you solved the mystery, too.

I tend to think the tracking down of family origins is something that many American’s are interested in bc we are a nation of migrants from all over the world and lost much of our connections to heritage and family bc of it. I know my British friends "take the piss" out of me whenever I mention ancestry because for them it isn’t as important to find out why you ended up in a country on the other side of the world that has only been occupied for about 400 years.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Yes excellent advice, and I enjoy talking to family about memories about events like WWII and family members I never got to meet.

The picture next to my name is of Bond, James Bond, as played by the great Sean Connery. The best Bond, though Moore did a few good movies and I quite like the new ones with Daniel Craig.

Phil had three brothers who served in WWII and one brother in Korea, and thankfully everyone else made it home and become part of my life as my (great) uncles. My dad also served in Korea.

Here is a picture of me when I was a military policeman in the Army Reserve. And I have not aged or put on any weight since this picture.

Nice photo, and thank you for your service!

And it looks like even then you were eyeballing someone suspicious.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Yes excellent advice, and I enjoy talking to family about memories about events like WWII and family members I never got to meet.

The picture next to my name is of Bond, James Bond, as played by the great Sean Connery. The best Bond, though Moore did a few good movies and I quite like the new ones with Daniel Craig.

Phil had three brothers who served in WWII and one brother in Korea, and thankfully everyone else made it home and become part of my life as my (great) uncles. My dad also served in Korea.

Here is a picture of me when I was a military policeman in the Army Reserve. And I have not aged or put on any weight since this picture.

Well now you really have my attention! Very nice pic and quite a resemblance to Sean Connery imo! But you probably know that lol! Please share your tips on aging so well and gracefully. There might be some here who can use them lol!

Nice photo, and thank you for your service!

And it looks like even then you were eyeballing someone suspicious.

Thank you doranchak & capricorn.

Yes it does seem I was looking at someone off to the side. Maybe a suspicious character. Or probably a good looking woman. Or, after four months active duty for training with 95% men, a woman, period.

AK, where did you do your Basic training, or AIT?

Ya had the Elvis look happening. Good pic for the ages.

AK, where did you do your Basic training, or AIT?

Basic training and military police school at Fort McClellan, Alabama.

Do you know of any way to investigate old telephone numbers, preferably for free? I have a few that are circa. 1970 and would like to know who they belonged to if possible. I’m not trusting any of the websites purporting to do this. I wouldn’t mind paying a nominal fee if they produced results. These numbers were located in southern California. We have had many changes in area codes since then due mainly to population growth. Also I don’t seem to get anywhere trying to research using Polk directories that I’ve found online so think there is a missing trick here.

With your impressive background, thought if anyone knew how to do this you’d be the one.

Capricorn, start a new topic thread in Ask A Fellow Member. Explain what you are trying to do there, then myself and other members can give you any knowledge we have. This thread was about the medal. You will get more members to read your post if you start a seperate topic thread for it.