Identifying ribbons, etc.
Hi! So I’ve been doing some digging into my great-grandfather’s military career. I never got to meet him unfortunately. I know he enlisted when he was 17. He retired in 1971 as a First Sergeant. He was in the Marines. He was in WW2, the Korean War and two tours in Vietnam. I was looking through boxes of his things the other day that my nana has, and I found all of these ribbons. Plus the medals. My nana needs to fix the one that fell, haha. Can anyone help me out please with identifying the ribbons? I can’t really find anything online about him in terms of public records. I did find him on some muster rolls though. I also submitted a request for his full records but I’ve heard it can take a while. 😅 His last name was Hoover. Thank you!
A couple things that were in his obituary: “He was a very personal man and didn't like to have anyone trying to "poke around." Despite his being member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars for many years, documents listing his medals and commendations were not on file. Chet T, PW Commander, said that Hoover might have something to do with its disappearance. "He was commander for a while. He might just have destroyed it. He would have had access to it."”
Another friend who served with him said this as well: “During the battle for Iwo Jima, two flags were raised. Hoover was there for both. On Mount Suribachi he received two wounds. First he was wounded and was being carried off of Suribachi and while still on the stretcher he was wounded a second time.” (He didn’t help raise the flags but he was there and saw both get raised.)
I don’t know if he actually would have been able to destroy any of his records. I don’t know how any of that works or if it would have been a simple thing for him to do. PSA sorry great-grandpa for “poking around” 😂 I wish I could have met you. Anyway, if you read all of this, thank you again!