recently i’ve received several commissions (pro bono) for servicemen including some military awards/rewards/honors. i can find images of them online and each person has sent a photo of it. BUT what i’m lookin for is a "heraldic" image of American military awards/rewards/honors if any exist. anyone have heraldic images of such they are willing to share? i’m just trying to see how others emblazon them…more detail or less…large or small…etc. i want mine to be nice for these men and am not happy with the ones i’ve done before.
specifically the purple heart (i have two of these).
Denny,
I think this is as close as you’ll get:
Military Decorations: http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Awards/decorations.aspx
Campaign & Service Medals: http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Awards/service_campaign.aspx
Example:
http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/images/decorations/DecorPurpleHeart.jpg http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/images/medals/PurpleHeart2.gif
Description
A Purple heart within a Gold border, 1 3/8 inches wide, containing a profile of General George Washington. Above the heart appears a shield of the Washington Coat of Arms (a White shield with two Red bars and three Red stars in chief) between sprays of Green leaves. The reverse consists of a raised Bronze heart with the words "FOR MILITARY MERIT" below the coat of arms and leaves.
Ribbon
The ribbon is 1 3/8 inches wide and consists of the following stripes: 1/8 inch White 67101; 1 1/8 inches Purple 67115; and 1/8 inch White 67101.
So, how would that be? You’d have to "translate" the TIOH’s "everyday" descriptions into an heraldic blazon. Something not too unlike the following poor attempt
On a heart Purpure bordered Or a profile bust facing to dexter of General George Washington of the last. Above the heart between two sprays of laurel Vert a shield Argent two bars Gules in chief three mullets in fess of the second. All attached to a jump ring and depending from a ribbon Purpure edged Argent
How does that sound? Urrgh! Perhaps the ever-so-curt-and-concise: "A Purple Heart Medal as shewn in the margin herein."
Then again, Denny .... I don’t recall the Orders/medals being blazoned in Letters Patent, merely the mention of the medal or Order following the recipient’s name; the artist just went ahead and emblazoned the Order/medal hanging from the bottom point of the shield.
Donnchadh;78978 wrote:
what i’m lookin for is a "heraldic" image of American military awards/rewards/honors if any exist. anyone have heraldic images of such they are willing to share? i’m just trying to see how others emblazon them…more detail or less…large or small…etc.
Denny, if it’s any help, the Canadian Heraldry Authority website contains many arms which have Canadian orders and decorations suspended from them. As far as proportions are concerned, the ribbon appears to be around 22-25% the width of the shield, and the medal itself is then in proportion to the ribbon.
I thought Denny’s question was about emblazoning, not blazoning. I agree that it’s not necessary (even assuming it were possible) to blazon the decoration itself, or even to mention it in the blazon of the arms—you just depict it in the emblazonment.
I do think Guy and Arthur’s suggestions on sources are on target. The one thing you probably will need to do is make the ribbons longer than they actually are on U.S. decorations, especially if there are more than one being shown. Here’s how I did it on my achievement:
http://www.americanheraldry.org/pages/uploads/Armorial/McMillan_ahs_16.jpg
Here’s a photograph of the actual full-size medal on the dexter side:
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Awards/SecDef/SDMCSAward1m.jpg
As you can see, if the ribbon and medal were depicted on the arms with their real proportions, either the top of the suspension ribbon would be poking out on the side of the shield or the medal wouldn’t be fully visible below the shield.
As for detail, the Purple Heart, I think there needs to be enough to look like an identifiable representation of the award. Otherwise doesn’t it depend on the style of the rest of the emblazonment? If the shield and helm are done in a fairly simple, flat style without a lot of modeling and shading, it would look odd to have a photorealist rendering of the decoration, but if you’re working in the more lavish style used by many of the English-trained herald painters, more detail and texture would seem appropriate.
The members’ arms gallery on the Heraldry Society (England) website has some more examples of different styles.
thanks guys. it is regarding the emblazon. Joe, this is what i was thinking (proportion and detail). the images of the purple heart are very short in the ribbon area and i wasn’t sure how to do this below the shield really. i know it’s going to be larger than proportion would make it, but i think that too much would overwhelm the piece. i forgot about your arms shown here. this is a good model to work from in regards proportion and if you don’t mind i will use it as a model.
i offered my services online at FB for those serving and for those whose loved ones served and for those families of 9-11 victims free of charge (except s&h) until midnight last night. i asked my modest group of 446 (mostly HS and coaching) friends to pass that on. as of this morning, i had 21 commissions (all military and none of the families of 9-11 victims…maybe in the future) and the ones that came in earlier (began this offer on 9-1 iirc) had some medals including the purple heart. so, since this is for these people i just want to make it as good as possible. thanks again fellas.
Denny,
God bless you for your service to those who are serving!
—Guy
well thank you Guy. it’s what i can do…i can’t do much more sadly. if i could’ve had my way i would’ve been there with them. no one will take you with asthma…and i can’t hide it…not that i should do that if i could’ve…just sayin i couldn’t try and sneak in without them noticing it. so, this is all i can do. but, thanks. 
Just a thought, Denny - but to my mind, it is not at all necessary to emblazon the actual medal unless the armiger insists. Every medal of award or decoration (there is a difference!) has an absolutely unique suspension ribbon, so that when blazoning the medal, a blazon of the ribbon is also necessary.
If you want to show that the armiger has been awarded a given decoration, all you need show is the colors of the ribbon - and even then, a medal below the precedence of Purple Heart, or maybe Bronze Star with V Device, may be a bit tacky.
If it’s too difficult or confusing to emblazon the entire medal, just use the design of the suspension ribbon, in every case unique to that particular medal, either in Orle or as a ribband from the helmet.
Grumpy John;79431 wrote:
Just a thought, Denny - but to my mind, it is not at all necessary to emblazon the actual medal unless the armiger insists. Every medal of award or decoration (there is a difference!) has an absolutely unique suspension ribbon, so that when blazoning the medal, a blazon of the ribbon is also necessary.
If you want to show that the armiger has been awarded a given decoration, all you need show is the colors of the ribbon - and even then, a medal below the precedence of Purple Heart, or maybe Bronze Star with V Device, may be a bit tacky.
If it’s too difficult or confusing to emblazon the entire medal, just use the design of the suspension ribbon, in every case unique to that particular medal, either in Orle or as a ribband from the helmet.
I’m sorry, but no, please don’t. There is an established convention for displaying decorations with coats of arms. It is described in our guidelines. I agree that excruciating detail on a medal is not necessary if it is identifiable without, but the medal itself should be shown and it shouldn’t visibly be wrong.
Hi Denny,
I was cruising Andrew Jamieson’s site and found an image of his which addresses your original question:
No…. I have NO idea whose arms these are.
Cheers!
—Guy
Presumably a four-headed former U.S. Army aviator who’s now a count of the Holy Roman Empire but still doesn’t know any better than to include his campaign/service medals in a heraldic achievement.
Joseph, Do you have any idea what that pendant medal in the center is? I recognize most Army decorations, but I don’t ever remember seeing that one. I thought at first that he was trying for an Iron Cross, but there seem to be vanishingly few Army aviators who have one.
I’d buy including the Bronze Star, but if he gets to include his NDSM, then I want to add my Expert Mechanic Badge.
Grumps: That is the badge of the Most Venerable Order of St. John. I can’t tell if it is Member or Officer; the Member-grade would be all metal, Officer-grade would have white enamelled arms of the St. John’s Cross (aka Maltese Cross). It is definitely not Commander or Knight grade as those two badges use a long suspension ring instead of an "O" type jump ring (the ring that attaches the badge to the ribbon).
Joe: The former military member might also have been a non-aviator who flew combat Command & Control missions: I can’t tell, but the numeral on the Air Medal looks like a "2". Most combat aviators I’ve seen had double-digit awards of the Air Medal. Other than the MVOSJ Badge, I think I would have included only the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster if I were the armiger.
—Guy
Guy Power;79628 wrote:
Joe: The former military member might also have been a non-aviator who flew combat Command & Control missions: I can’t tell, but the numeral on the Air Medal looks like a "2". Most combat aviators I’ve seen had double-digit awards of the Air Medal.
True enough. But definitely Army (ARCOM up next to the VNSM)
Quote:
Other than the MVOSJ Badge, I think I would have included only the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster if I were the armiger.
Maybe so, but at least the Army Commendation Medal and Air Medal (along with the Bronze Star) count officially as decorations rather than as service medals. That’s always been where I draw the line, as you know.
But if you take the view that less is more, this achievement crossed the line long before Jamieson got to sketching out the NDSM.
