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012 - SIDEBAR The George Medal · First Offensive- The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal

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  Speaker 1: Chapter six sidebar of First Defensive The Marine Campaign for
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  Speaker 1: Guadalcanal by Henry Shaw. This LibriVox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. The George Medal. The George Medal is legendary
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  Speaker 1: among First Marine Division veterans of Guadalcanal. Only about fifty
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  Speaker 1: were cast in Australia before the mold gave out. The
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  Speaker 1: medal commemorates the difficult situation of the division during the
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  Speaker 1: early days on Guadalcanal, when ammunition, food, and heavy equipment
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  Speaker 1: were short and the Japanese were plentiful. When the issue
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  Speaker 1: was no longer in doubt, Marines had time to reflect
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  Speaker 1: on the Deep plus three Navy withdrawal in the face
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  Speaker 1: of increasing Japanese air attacks and surface action which left
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  Speaker 1: the division in such a tight spot, and the recollection
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  Speaker 1: of then Captain Donald L. Dixon, adjutant of the fifth
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  Speaker 1: Marines the Division G three, then Lieutenant Colonel Merrill B. Twining,
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  Speaker 1: resolved to commemorate the occasion till old Artist Dixon in
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  Speaker 1: general terms what he had in mind. Dixon went to
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  Speaker 1: work designing an appropriate medal, using a fifty cent piece
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  Speaker 1: to draw a circle on a captured Japanese blank military postcard.
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  Speaker 1: Dixon's design was approved, and when the division got to Australia,
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  Speaker 1: a mold was made by a local metal craftsman and
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  Speaker 1: a small number were cast before the mold became unserviceable.
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  Speaker 1: Those wanting a medal paid one Australian pound for it
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  Speaker 1: and received a certificate as well. The medals are now
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  Speaker 1: in even greater rarity than at the time. In recent years,
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  Speaker 1: reproductions have been cast and can be identified by the
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  Speaker 1: different metal and a poor definition of details. The obverse
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  Speaker 1: design shows a hand and sleeve dropping a hot potato
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  Speaker 1: in the shape of Guadalcanal into the arms of a
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  Speaker 1: grateful marine. In the original design, the sleeve bore the
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  Speaker 1: stripes of a Vice Admiral, intended to be either Vice
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  Speaker 1: Admiral Robert L. Gormlely com Soapack or Vice Admiral Frank
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  Speaker 1: Jack Fletcher, Commander Joint Expeditionary Force, but the final medal
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  Speaker 1: diplomatically omitted this identification. Also on the obverse is a
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  Speaker 1: seguero cactus indigenous to Arizona, not Guadalcanal, but representing the
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  Speaker 1: code name for the island cactus. The obverse inscription is
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  Speaker 1: Fascia georgis let George do it. Thus it became known
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  Speaker 1: as the George Medal. The medal's reverse pictures of cow.
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  Speaker 1: The original design showed a Japanese soldier with breeches down
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  Speaker 1: in an electric fan and is inscribed in fond remembrance
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  Speaker 1: of the happy days spent from August seventh, nineteen forty
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  Speaker 1: two to January fifth, nineteen forty three USMC. The suspension
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  Speaker 1: ribbon was made appropriately of the pale green herring bone
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  Speaker 1: twill from submarine's utility uniform. Legend has it that to
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  Speaker 1: be authentic, the utilities from which the ribbons were made
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  Speaker 1: had to have been washed in the wall of Guadalcanal's
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  Speaker 1: Lunger River. Some medals were provided with the oversized safety
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  Speaker 1: pin used to identify laundry bags and Navy shipboard laundries.
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  Speaker 1: Such unofficial commemorative mementos are not uncommon in military circles
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  Speaker 1: and recall, among others, the Suchau Creek medals recognizing the
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  Speaker 1: defense of Shanghai's international settlement during the Japanese invasions of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two and thirty seven, which were inspired by
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  Speaker 1: the Military Order of the Dragon Medals of veterans of
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  Speaker 1: the China Relief expedition or Boxer Rebellion brook Nyhart. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter six sidebar Red by Aaron Bennett. End of
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  Speaker 1: First Offensive, The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal by Henry Shaw,