Please identify a ribbon for me

It looks like a faded/discolored American Campaign Medal that is also upside down.
Requirements:

1. On permanent assignment outside the continental limits of the United States.
2. Permanently assigned as a member of a crew of a vessel sailing ocean waters for a period of 30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days.
3. Outside the continental limits of the United States in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days.
4. In active combat against the enemy and was awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the Soldier actually participated in combat.
5. Within the continental limits of the United States for an aggregate period of 1 year.

If he was stateside for at least a year training and awaiting transport, he would earn it, which is how a large number of men earned it.

Considering the 563rd earned 5 Campaign Stars, he most likely would have earned the medal under section 4 above.

 

Also, I strongly doubt they wore a patch specific to their unit, the 563SAWB. Most likely, if they wore a patch, it would have been of a Corps or Army or its equivalent, which was most likely that of XIX Tactical Air Command and was part of the 9th Air Force.

I don't know if the XIX Tac Air had a patch, but the 9th AF did.

 

I don't know.. Could be a locally acquired ribbon with below quality materials? Could be from a different set of ribbons that had been exposed?

Regardless, he would have been authorized the ACM, judging by what you have presented here. If there is not another similar ribbon, then most likely it is it.

There were not a lot of ribbons and the like back then, as it is now. Men didn't get ribbons for schools, training, and the like Most veterans who served honorably wore the same small set of ribbons. Barring exceptional and repeated valor, most only wore six or so ribbons at best. They may have been subsequently awarded others later (e.g. a Bronze Star to go with the CIB), but they only wore those few in that timeframe. There were only a few other ribbons commonly worn that were of a greater precedence, and I would readily recognize them and you would probably would have already found them.

There are a few National Guard ribbons, awarded by state governments back then, mostly likely pre-war. If he served in the NG before the war, it is possible for there to be an odd ribbon awarded by a state. Finding it will be interesting.

 

He was enlisted. Enlisted men very often wore Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI) on the upper lapels of the Service Dress. They were often heraldic in appearance. The sketch you provided looks similar to a DUI, but not all smaller units were authorized any. They were common for regiment-sized units and less common for battalion-sized units, especially unit types created and formed during the war, which I highly suspect the the 563d was.

I cannot say definitively as the air forces are not my strength, but I suspect strongly his left shoulder patch was that of the 9th AF.