#he also doesn't have a Korea medal (the requirement for it is at least one day in korea if you're army)

[matchalattewithice]

M*A*S*H Medal Guide

henry's medals (korean service, national defense service, united nations service medal korea, purple heart, army commendation medal, army of occupation medal)

-korean service and un service medal korea are standard korean war medals

-a purple heart :( when did he get hurt

-army commendation medal is for any armed forces member that "distinguished themselves by heroism, meritorious achievement or meritorious service". maybe same time as the purple heart?

-most interesting is the army of occupation medal. the requirement is "30 or more consecutive days of duty in one of the occupied territories after World War II" and korea was designated as such then. we know henry was drafted, so he couldn't have served in wwii cause he would've been exempt otherwise. for korea the medal got awarded "3 September 1945 to 29 June 1949", so henry must've been drafted practically in the very beginning, with the selective service act of 1948. however, "these men could be called for up to 21 months of active duty", so it probably was around late spring of 1949 he was drafted. i imagine he was forced to stay longer when state of emergency was declared and the doctor draft went into effect in 1950

charle's medals (korean service w/ 1 bronze service star, national defense service, united nations service medal korea)

-notable addition is that the korean service medal has a bronze star which means charles has participated in at least one phase of the korean war according to the army

frank has exact same as charles minus bronze service star so i'm not including him

-in all honesty, both he and henry qualify for bronze service stars each, henry for six and frank for five (there's ten campaigns of the korean war). also five bronze makes one silver so henry should have one silver and one bronze and frank a silver

potter's medals (korean service, national defense service, united nations service medal korea, purple heart, army commendation medal, good conduct medal army variant)

-same as henry's but minus an army of occupation medal and has what i see as the good conduct medal

-good conduct medal is awarded for "Exemplary behavior, efficiency, and fidelity in active Federal Military service", standard regular army potter stuff

-surprised he doesn't have any world war era medals. he qualifies for the wwii victory and the european-african-middle eastern campaign medals at the very least

margaret's medals (korean service, united nations service medal korea, army commendation medal)

-she should for sure have a national defense service medal, and i personally think she should have a good conduct one as well edit: @/caddyxjellyby reminded me that good conducts are for enlisted personnel thank you!

-another commendation medal! seems more likely she got it for the more "meritorious achievement or meritorious service" requirements rather than heroism. sorry margaret

[portugalisinsa]

A quick skim through the BBC!Ghosts tag tells me that no one has spent too much time trying to decode the Captain’s service ribbons. Lucky you, I did!

The badge on his jacket lapels say that he was in the royal artillery

1939 to 1945 Star: This is awarded to anyone who completed operational service overseas between 3 September 1939 and 8 May 1945 for at least 180 days.

France and Germany Star: Awarded for at least 1 day of operational service in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands or Germany between 6 June 1944 and 8 May 1945.

Defence Medal: Awarded for non-operational service (like training bases, for example) in the UK or overseas. A minimum of 3 years service in either the UK (3 Sep 1939 and 8 May 1945) or in the Home Guard (14 May 1940 and 31 Dec 1944) are required; if stationed overseas, 1 year between 3 Sep 1939 and 2 Sep 1945.

War Medal 1939 to 1945: Awarded to all full time personnel of the armed forces who served at least 28 days between 3 September 1939 and 2 September 1945, no matter where. In Europe, WWII ended in May 1945; this medal was instituted in August 1945.

He doesn’t wear any other clasp, so he didn’t fight in the Battle for Britain or the Battle of the Atlantic (makes sense, those were RAF and Navy stuff mostly). The Africa Star was awarded for a minimum of one day of operational service in North Africa, the Arctic Star was awarded for any amount of time spent fighting in that campaign, and the Pacific, Burma, and Italy Stars were awarded upon entry into an operational area. He was awarded none of these medals, which means he only fought the France and Germany campaign.

He only wears WWII medals, which means he didn’t fight in WWI (it was unlikely he would have anyway, tbh, 41 was the the maximum age to fight in WWII, which would have made him 18 in 1916). The order I’ve written them out in (from top to bottom) is the order they should go left to right. For some reason, the Captain is wearing the ribbon band upside down. That’s a very huge big no good no-no. At first I assumed if was a mistake by the costume people, but it’s been three seasons and that hasn’t been fixed yet so I have to conclude it’s intentional. It could be some kind of BBC directive (idk, “non-army personnel has to wear the uniform in a certain way or it’s an insult to the queen” or some other silly nonsense) or it could be a genuine mistake the Captain made before dying, in which case I assume he’s spent sixty years being massively bothered by this. [ @lagoonnebula6523 said that the director of series 1 and 2 hinted that the reason for this mistake would be revealed in a future series, which I think points to an in universe explanation. Thank you for the info, this is super cool to know!] [Small aside, but I remember googling why the ribbons would be worn upside down and what i found was neat but probably unrelated. Check the tags if you’re interested]

I believe he’s in a service dress, which basically means he was at some kind of event when he died. He’s not in the army equivalent of the white tie, so we’re not talking about something too fancy. Maybe some sort of minor party?

So yeah, dude died after the war ended, and considering he seems used to saying “king” instead of “queen” I feel like he died either before Elizabeth was crowned or just after, so somewhere between August 1945 and around 1953-55