Hello all, I am new to the forum and looking to identify some ribbons that my grandfather received when he was in the Army during WWII. From his Report of Separation, he was honorably discharged from the Army after his service in New Guinea, the Philippines and Luzon with the 716th Tank Battalion Company D. He was a Light Tank Crewman 736. He received the WWII Victory Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, the American Theater ribbon, the Asiatic-Pacific Theater ribbon with 3 Bronze Service Stars and 1 Bronze Arrowhead, and the Philippine Liberation ribbon with 2 Bronze Stars. He was a Private First Class. From reading thru the forums here, I was able to find out a little about one of his ribbons that I could not identify earlier but hopefully someone would be kind enough to clarify my knowledge of it a little more. I will try post an image but essentially the ribbon has a blue star over a silver and red border and has 3 horizontal dotted lines over a blue background. From what I learned from the Forum, the blue star over the silver and red border signifies the Army Service Forces (Services of Supply) division. And maybe I am wrong but I also read somewhere that each of the 3 horizontal dotted lines signify 6 months of service each? I am trying to familiarize myself with all of his medals and ribbons so that I can assist my mother with learning who her father was as she barely knew him before he passed away in 1955. So any help would be greatly appreciated and Thanks a lot in advance!
The insignia in the middle is thatof the 'Army Service Forces': IN 1942 the Army Chief of Staff tried to streamline the bureaucracy and divided the Army in to thre components: Ground Force, Air Force and Service Force Army Service Forces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It may very well be a 'theatre made' piece to signify that he was in a combat zone as part of this group and although the ribbon was never authorized it's wear may have been permitted.
If you still need info on the 716th, we are pretty active over here at piecing together our 716 Veteran's History: 716th Tank Battalion