ww1collector.com

This is a collection of US wartime medals and uniforms beginning with World War I up through Vietnam that I have been gathering for 30 years.

My father was the Signal Officer as a Captain in the Regimental HQ for the 320th Field Artillery, 82nd Division in World War I. When I was a little kid in the 1940's, he used to tell me about his experiences during the war. He recorded these stories and they have since been transcribed. I will make them available on this site as time permits. My father saved everything from the war including his trunk, pictures, letters, documents, uniform and his Purple Heart that he received in 1932. He was wounded on November 4, 1918 when the Germans placed some well aimed artillery near the staff car he was riding in.

This collection has evolved in the last years. Adding to the collection at first, the concentration was on World War I. As time went on, World War II began to intrigue me, so that collection began to grow. At this point, the focus is on not just the "stuff" but the history behind everything. To that end, everything that I now collect is identified to an individual. Medals and uniforms are the primary focus. This site will highlight identified US medal and uniform groups. I have done research on the internet as it becomes more and more available every passing day. The information about each of the groups on this site has been gleaned from those sites if sufficient information was not initially available when acquired. Individual collectors and historians have been extremely helpful in volunteering their time and energy to research and provide me with information on some of the people that are represented here.