Reason my Father Robert E Davidson serving with Co "A" 194th Tank Bn. 47th Inf Div. Camp Rucker, Ala. received a Bronze Star during the Korean war. Records were lost in 1973 fire. Is there any way to get anymore information?

How can I find any information about why my Father received the Bronze Star in Korea? 

Parents Reply Children
  • Yes, that's just the completion of his basic training. The 8th Infantry Division was used as a training division, and Company D, 61st Infantry was his training company.

    So you don't need to worry about that as a unit of assignment. He did his training, then he was sent on his merry way.

    Nowadays, although they don't have a division headquarters running basic training, most of the training units use historic designations. It allows new recruits to get a sense of belonging and history from the start of their training. But no modern recruit would say "I'm a proud member of the 61st Infantry." They'd just say "I did basic training at Fort Jackson."

    There's no date on it, but I would suspect taht he probably shipped straight from Basic Training to Korea.

  • I have one more question about these two pictures. I think one was taken at Ft Jackson before deployment to Korea the other at Camp Rucker upon returning. The Tropic Lightening patch is visible in the one at Ft Jackson. The picture at Camp Rucker his right sleeve isn’t visible. Would the Tropic Lightening patch also be on the right sleeve in that picture as well? Just curious I want to know everything I can find out. Thank you in advance! 

  • No. The Tropic Lightning patch is officially called a "Shoulder Sleeve Insignia, Former Wartime Service," or to use the common soldier slang term, a "Combat Patch." He would not have been authorized it until after he returned from Korea.

    But both of these photos were taken after he returned. You can tell because he's wearing the Combat Infantryman's Badge in both photos. And he wouldn't have been authorized that until he deployed to Korea. Because you have to be an infantryman, assigned to an infantry regiment or smaller unit, and have directly engaged the enemy (firing mortars counts). Now, he may have met all those criteria on his second day in Korea and been awarded the CIB then--but he wouldn't have been wearing it at Fort Jackson before he deployed.

    Alternatively, if he took a mid-tour leave to go to Japan, he could have had the picture taken there-I don't know what the exact policy was for WHEN you could start wearing the Combat Patch. In Iraq we started wearing ours after 30 days, and in Desert Storm we were ordered to have them sewn on the day the last US troops pulled out of Iraq, even though there were a whole bunch of us still in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

    Hope that helps.

  • I wanted to reach out to you again to let you know how much you helped me learn what I could about my father’s service since his records were destroyed. The Veterans Administration agent in my county also helped me in some areas. I sent a request for replacement medals of which they would only send what was on his DD214 and of course it took months but I got them today and I am beyond thrilled to get them. I think he was awarded the good conduct medal but it was not listed so I didn’t get it. My mother passed away in March and I stopped researching for a while but these medals have given me a renewed purpose for information. Again thank you and I hope you continue to help others on this site! 

  • I'm glad I could be of help. If you wanted to continue to pursue the Good Conduct Medal, you could apply to the Board for the Correction of Military Records, here:

    The United States Army | Army Review Boards Agency (pentagon.mil)

    Include all the records you have, I assume his DD-214 doesn't list any "bad time" (time lost under UCMJ) or records of Court Martial. If he had no time lost or Court Martials listed, you argue that he made Staff Sergeant, include the Article about the Bronze Star (even though it's not on his DD_214) and say that you believe, based on that, that his service was honorable and he should have been awarded a Good Conduct Medal upon discharge.

    Heck, while you're at it, Also request that his records be corrected to reflect the award of the Bronze Star Medal, based on the newspaper clipping--let them go look up the General Order in the files.

    All they can do is say no.

    Also, your father was awarded the Republic of Korea War Service Medal by the Government of Korea--he'd never know that, though, because the US Government never formally accepted it until 1999. You have to purchase it from a commercial vendor though. If you Google it, you should be able to find it easily enough.

    Korean War Service Medal - Wikipedia