War poster

Well, I meant to post this only for family, but it was accidentally posted on my painting blog for a few moments. And since I see a bunch of folks have clicked on it (only to find a "sorry" message), I'll go ahead and share this.

I'm not sure if there's a specific name for this kind of poster. I assume all the guys in the division could get one. As is self-evident, the poster gives a campaign record of the division (in this case, the 79th Inf. Division) during the war (Worlds War II). My grandfather, who died many years ago, has a set of four or five of these posters, and I got them when my grandmother died.

The posters are getting brittle and a bit yellowed, so I'm in the process of digitizing them for the rest of the family.

Here's a pic of my grandfather after he completed basic training (in California, I think). Interestingly, he started off with the 6th Armored Division, but was transferred to the 79th Infantry somewhere along the line. I'm not much of a historian, but I figured you'd transfer troops within a division, but not between divisions(?) (I welcome any enlightenment.)

Anyway, his service record is scant; I do know (from his one-page discharge papers) that he got a bronze star for taking over his machinegun squad (.30 cal.) when his squad leader was hit. He's told a story of capturing a German colonel (one of my uncles still has the knife my grandfather "confiscated,") as well as a story about using his fluent Italian to boss around some unsuspecting Italian prisoners of war who were getting a bit uppity (He was from Reggio di Calabria.) Then there was the story he told that went, "And them Germans was usin' the 88s on us. One of'em hit right here, and blew me clear across over there."

I guess there are quite a few stories. I'm sure I'll remember some more later.

In any case, this is one of the men (the other being my dad) who opened my eyes to building, painting and creating.