Видео

The most interesting and unspoken subplot of "First Blood" was that Teasel displayed the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star (2nd and 3rd highest U.S. Army awards for valor) presumably won during the Korean War. With Korea being the "Forgotten War", especially compared to Vietnam, and Rambo having a higher decoration than him drove him even further in his Ahab-like quest to get Rambo.

Perhaps another source of the second medal might be assignment as a "Fleet Marine" on any one of 31 eight fleet battle ships, carriers or cruisers that each would have had @ 80 enlisted/NCO's and two or three officers. They were the on board police force, officers also served as part of the court martial system for serious offenses, On carriers this group would be different from any air units on board.

This was a movie, not real life. This person never existed

I would like to see you do an analysis of Oberst Wilhelm Klink and Col Robert Hogan.

That was interesting, but there is a far easier idea - he was assigned to USS Boise. Boise was at Guadalcanal and was damaged at Cape Esperance, went to Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs, then went to the Med for the Battle of Gela, as well as Taranto and Salerno. After that, back to the Pacific. Probably wasn't aboard the whole time, but this is an easier explanation then trying to make a Mafia connection to a character that famously wanted nothing to do with that side of the family until his father got shot.

The pronunciation “seh-CON-ded” as opposed to “SEH-con-ded” threw me a bit… I suppose I am an unenlightened colonial. 😊

Great research & breakdown of all the campaigns attributed the Late Great General Melchett. 🫡

Marine Corps officers & NCOs were also involved in the OSS and activity engaged in espionage and sabotage in Sicily, Italy and France.

Here's a future episode. Ruger Hauger's character in Fatherland. (1994) There's really not a good shot of them but being in an alternate time line in England, should be interesting.

For those wondering: In WW2, and with the Marine's generally, fewer medals & awards were more common. Today, larger ribbon racks are more common. As an example, an Army soldier serving in the Iraq War (3 years of service, 1 combat deployment), may conservatively obtain 5 ribbons, nearly as many as the putative Corleone, and without seeing any real action or doing anything of note.

Should also reference the novel, which does discuss briefly his military service

When I was a boy in the States ladies would sell it downtown in Oct and Nov. and the VFW would sell them too. My dad a member, and WW2 and Korean War Vet would wear that little silk poppy proudly. I wear mine, a metal one. all the time for the men from the founding of my country to to ones serving now. The US Marine Corp have a fanstastic display in there Museum for the WW1 of Flannders Field covered with Poppies. It's womderful.

Looking forward to seeing the stories behind the medals of a lowly, lowly cook 😂😂

Thank you for the in-depth analysis of Michael Corleone's medals.

Do you have a stance on whether Churchill should wear the World War II campaign medals though he wasn't an official member of the Armed Forces?

Wolud you do gunnery sergeant highway form heartbreak ridge?

Would it be possible for you to do the Medals of Cole Phelps from LA Noire? There isnt a picture of him in USMC uniform, but we do know that he definitely has a Silver Star and Asiatic Pacific Campaign medals

Would love to see an episode on the late governor of NSW Sir Roden Cutler VC, AK, KCMG, KCVO, CBE.

17:39 has any one ever told you that in the right light and from the right angle you have hauntingly distressing eye's?

Doesn't matter about his ribbons/medals. He shot it all down with his faux pas. Look at Godfather (II?) when he is running to his dads hospital room after figuring out all the guards are gone. He runs like, well like, well.... what he doesn't run like is a Marine. He runs like the most effeminate guy in your gym class.

perhaps the Rhodesian medal was included due to the colors of the ribbon ; too RAF for someone who is not familiary with; otherwise the OBE is appropriate for rank and service; the UN and NATO medals make Bond 1990s relevant. the DSC and the GSM Gulf clasp is a great realistic combination.

great video; this means that James Bond did not participate in the 1950-53 Korean War in any capacity/mission. For his rank both the CMG and the DSO are rather high; interestingly there is no gallantry medal like the Distinguished Service Cross of the Royal Navy.

They glazed the Mafia so hard in this film by making Michael such a gigachad war hero and youngest USMC Captain

In the novel, when Michael is still being shielded from the family business he pleads his case by mentioning he (as a Marine) had be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. So...a little confusion there. It has happened obviously but I would think it so rare as to be simply writer's ignorance.

In the novel it was said that Michael had earned the distinguished service cross which is not seen in the salad.

My Father served in WW2, as did my Mother, since she passed in January 2020, I have permanently worn an enamelled metal poppy on my Sunday jacket, (it's an official one from the Royal British Legion), this is because I want to honour both of my late parents, and their compatriots. I'm in the USA, where they don't sell paper poppies. God Bless every one of those that served.

In "Godfather II" Michael testifies to a Senate committee that he was awarded the Navy Cross. Yet when he appears for the first time in "Godfather I" the Navy Cross is nowhere to be seen.

When did americans go from a bit more conservative ribbon bars to the madness they have now? Looking at MASH characters (some great characters there you could look at like Col Potter too) they have the smaller ribbons but less of them.

Each bond had different ribbons but were all the rank of commander

They made a mistake in the film......he won the navy Cross not the silver star Continuity mistake

Actor Sterling Hayden was a Marine Corps officer who served in Europe, specifically on the islands and waters of the Adriatic Sea, with clandestine landings on the coast of German-occupied Yugoslavia to insert/extract agents, extract US flying personnel shot down but rescued by Partisans, and deliver weapons and other suppliers to said Partisans. Hayden was assigned to the OSS (Office of Strategic Services -- the forerunner of the CIA), which trained and employed men of all the US armed services, though its commander was an Army general, William "Wild Bill" Donavon. OSS men operating in the ETO would have earned the ENAME campaign medal if on the job there long enough. I expect there were other USMC personnel seconded to the OSS in Europe, but such service was a rarety compared to the vast majority of the Corps' manpower.

Strangely enough, in The Godfather Part II, he states that he was awarded the Navy Cross, but it wasn’t among his ribbons in GF1, so likely an error in GF2.

The uniform in the photo is that of a officer in the U.S. Army not worn by the Marines. Marine were not deployed to Europe except on Navy ships.

What he's really missing is the American Campaign Medal which was awarded for twelve months cumulative service in the Continental U.S. as the easiest way to earn one. I've never known or seen a WWII veteran without one.

There were US Marines in the ETO during DDay. The German troops thought that they were engaged with a Bn. when it was only 12 Marines. I don't remember what town it was in, but it has been documented.

A Marine in WWII who won a silver star and purple heart would not have been such a novice in the murder of Salozzo.

Great video. One small point. I think you meant “banzai” rather than “bonsai”

Just in time for the US Marine Corps 249th Birthday. Semper Fidelis!

I absolutely LOVE the headcanon and I am certain that Mario Puzo, who would happily torture his own writing to get it to work better with the projects of others, would approve and canonize this!

I always thought it was comical how the mobsters talked down to Michael about his going after Solazzo as if a mob hit was more violent and taxing than sustained combat in the WWII. One look at his fruit salad in the film and you know he’s no stranger to violence

The proper description the Navy/Marine Corps medal description is a foul anchor, not a fouled anchor.

The Democrats in the FDR White House pushed for Mafia collaboration because they had long been political allies in New York and New Jersey. There's no real indication it produced anything of real value to the war effort. The high British casualties in Sicily and their slow advance were the faullt of Montgomery and the donkeys of the British staff. Patton, despite being shoved off the primary road net for the convenience of the British, managed to defeat both the Germans and Italians while traversing most of the island and beating Montgomery to the coast opposite the mainland.

Michael, having graduated (and he had graduated) from a prestigious university, would have almost certainly become an officer upon enlistment. In a Marine Corps starved of officers I doubt he would have been given a choice. The Corleone Family was running a legitimate Italian food import business, not smuggling. Their illegal business was mostly run out of Brooklyn and in the northeast US and centered on loansharking, gambling and similar businesses. Michael was not involved with any of the family business prior to his killing of Solazzo and the police captain. That's why Solazzo foolishly agreed to meet with him to negotiate a truce. His value to the Navy for Sicily would have his rudimentary knowledge of Sicilian. We know he wasn't fluent because he had to use Fabrizzio as an interpreter in approaching Appolonia's family, thus exposing himself as an American. During his exile he seems initially unfamiliar with Sicily, which would not have been the case if he worked undercover. More likely he brought specialized knowledge and training from the Pacific Marines and was liaison during the landings with the natives. He probably wouldn't have been in much direct combat. After Salerno at the latest he would have returned east to the Pacific via the Suez Canal and Australia. That could have put him back in combat at Cape Gloucester and New Britain. Like other veterans of his Guadacanal unit he would then have likely be part of the horrendous Peleliu operation. The lack of the Navy Cross on his uniform at his sister's wedding, which occurs just after his return in the fall of 1945 (he would have been among the first released from service due to his early enlistment, his wounds and his combat record), is probably due to a continuity and costume error but can be explained if his citation was under review by the Pentagon and only approved shortly afterwards. I strongly doubt the Michael character would engage in, or allow, any John Kerry like skullduggery to get a medal.

Side note on "Lucky" Luciano. He did a deal with the U.S government to help the war effort in exchange for his freedom. After the conflict he was released from prison and immediately deported back to the old country......... He was not a happy chappy

That's a nice stretch for the European-African-Middle East campaign medal. More likely the studio just made a mistake. In Godfather II they change the Silver Star to the Navy Cross. They're not nffearly as attentive to these things as the BBC. In one episode of the West Wing, Admiral Fitzwallace's ribbon bar is upside down. I can read a lot of medals. A useful skill in the service. I always look for these things.

@5'35" LT GEN George PattEn ....thta s a real newbie !

The Guadalcanal Campaign, which was part of the greater New Guinea Campaign, was one of the most decisive of World War 2. The Japanese had occupied Guadacanal and the nearby smaller island of Tulagi, the political capital of the Solomons, to establish the air base later known as Henderson Field. This was a necessary support for the Japanese Fleet to attack New Caledonia and the vital base at Noumea. A successful offensive there would have cut off the flow of supplies from the US to Australia and put Australia in mortal danger. That, at a minimum, would have extended the Pacific War for years and possibly have lost it entirely. In August 1942 the Battle of Midway had been the only victory against the Japanese and it wasn't yet known how decisive it was. Due to the lack of interest by the FDR regime in the Pacific because its primary interest was serving Stalin's interests in Europe, the initial Guadacanal landing was run on the bare minimum. It was, and still is, called Operation Shoestring. The Marines of which Michael would have been apart were abandoned in the first couple days of days and without most of their meager supplies. It was only courage, tenacity and American ingenuity that allowed them to first survive, and then beat, the elite Japanese troops sent against them. The first major naval battle, commanded by a British Imperial admiral, was a disastrous loss. Marine officers were expected to take great risks and he casualty rates of junior officers were extremely high. Medals were not handed out lightly. For Michael to receive such high awards he must have been in horrendous combat. It was rare for combat officers to survive as long as Michael seems to have done, plus achieving such high honors in units like that. He would have seen and fought bravely in horrible conditions. The jungles of the South Pacific were as harsh as anything on the Russian Front. He would been a very dangerous man, more so than any Mafia thug including Luca Brasi, and not at all the somewhat weak character Pacino and Coppolla played him as in the beginning of The Godfather.

Great video! And a great film! As my main interest is British medals it really interesting to look at some from overseas! Some of the Russian medals look interesting so it might be worth looking at starlins or one of the Marshall of the Soviets! Looking forward to your next offering. You have a great channel and I enjoy it immensely!😊

Apparently, you have never read the book “The Godfather” written by Mario Puzo. Michael was NOT involved in the family business before the death of Santino “Sonny”. This was by his father’s wishes.

No major USMC units participated in the North Africa; many U.S. Army units took part in the combat in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.