Search
Close this search box.

Medals, Badges, and Insignia of the United States Army

Click Image Above To View Flipbook

Hardcover

$29.95

The awards and decorations of the United States Army have long fascinated Americans. Now the complete history of United States Army awards from the Revolution to the 21st century is presented in a beautifully illustrated sourcebook written by America’s best-known military awards writer.

This comprehensive, easy to use volume is an informative guide to over 500 different metals, badges and insignia. United States Army metals, badges and insignia, filled with handsome color photography and other illustrations, is the ultimate United States Army awards reference and is sure to become the cornerstone of every veteran and veterans family library. His fascinating book also details the ways in which Army awards have been intertwined with American culture throughout the last more than 235 years.

CURRENT PRINT EDITION almost SOLD OUT

New Edition Coming September 1, 2020!

  • Features complete full-color plates of all Army decorations, medals, ribbons, badges, and insignia with all criteria.
  • Full-color precedence chart for all US Army awards and ribbons with devices.
  • Shows insignia and ribbon placement on uniforms for WW II, Korea, Vietnam, and the present.
  • Pictures, criteria, and specifications of all Army skill and specialty badges.
  • The most complete chapter on devices for awards and ribbons ever published, describing which devices correspond with each medal and ribbon (cross-indexed with color medal plates).
  • Complete color ribbons displays in the correct order of precedence for all awards and ribbons of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine since 1939.
  • Size: 81/2” x 11” – 192 pages

“This is the most complete and detailed book ever published on U.S. Army Military Awards and Insignia. It is lavishly illustrated with original drawings and beautiful color pictures of every medal, badge and insignia in the Army since 1941. The book opens with a short history of US Army insignia starting in 1775 and how they developed war by war up to today. Each period is illustrated with numerous examples. The book then covers all Army branch insignia in detail and the development of both officer and enlisted rank from 1775 to 2011. All skill and combat badges are laid out with criteria and dates to include those that have been discontinued. Every badge is shown in full color. Decorations and medals are displayed in color showing both front and back to include ribbon only awards. Additionally there is a complete ribbon chest in the correct order of precedence for wear. Detail descriptions of the medals cover criteria for award, symbolism of the medal and ribbon and even campaign dates for all service medals. There are special sections on how to determine what medals a veteran would earn in each conflict as well as sections on How to claim awards from the government and once obtained how to display military awards. The book took 5 years to research and write. With over 140 pages loaded with color illustrations and detail it is an incredible value.

Being an avid collector of US Army medals, badges, uniforms and accoutrements from the Vietnam War period I have found this book to be invaluable in both assisting me to correctly identify items I have in my collection (and want to have!) and telling me about their design and history. The color plates are just superb as is the informative text. I have not been able to find a better book that comprehensively covers the subject matter as this one does – it takes pride of place in my library and is referred to so often I’ve had to have it rebound!

I make military shadow boxes for people all the time. When I first started I did my grandfathers. All we had was a picture of him in uniform and his discharge paperwork. When I received his info from the VA, it said he was part of the 213th Coast Artillery. I had never heard of such a thing. I spent 2 months writing to Army historians to find out what this was. It took me almost a year to find the insignia on eBay. When I received this book, it had a section on Coast artillery and showed its entire insignia! If I had had this book sooner it would’ve saved me a lot of time. It has lots of detailed information. There’s one of these books for each branch of service. I plan to collect them all since people keep showing me civil war, WWI, WII photos with things on the uniforms I’ve never seen before. Now I just look at the book and there it is.

An excellent book for any collector!! I’ve been a collector of Army patches, medals and badges for sometime now. There were a few patches and medals in my collection that I couldn’t identify. When this book arrived I was quickly able to find the unknown patches and medals and identify them. It even had full color pictures and gave history on the medals. I would recommend this for any collector and it must be invaluable reference to any soldier in active duty or the reserves.”

“Have you ever wondered what the military ribbons on your grandfather’s World War II Army uniform stood for? Over half of all Americans today have a grandfather, father, son or daughter who has served in the armed forces since World War II. The U.S. Army will celebrate its 236th anniversary this year and the American soldiers’ history of honors, awards and insignia is long and fascinating.

There have been over 122 medals and ribbons awarded Army veterans since the Civil War. Those sort of numbers explain why Col. Frank Foster just published the third and greatly expanded edition of United States Army Medals, Badges and Insignia. The handsomely bound book, printed in the United States, has been expanded to almost 200 lavishly illustrated pages. ‘We pulled out all the stops in the third edition and now illustrate and describe every medal from the Revolution to the Global War on Terror’ said the Colonel. ‘There is more Army medals and insignia information in the new edition than horsepower in James Bond’s Aston Martin.’

A refreshingly entertaining and well-illustrated tour of 236 years of Army awards the book allows the reader to take the long road of history or a shortcut to a specific medal. The evolution of Army military medals beginning with the Revolutionary War is described and illustrated on every page with many original drawings and photographs. The medals and ribbons for each war and campaign are described even to how they were worn on the uniforms. The real tour de force is the magnificent full-color photographs of over 300 medals and ribbons awarded since the Civil War. The focus is not just on veterans and their families but there are detailed ribbon charts for active duty Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. It is without a doubt the most complete presentation ever done on United States military medals. One major in the Pentagon was quoted as saying, ‘no one looks up the awards regulations anymore, we just go to the medals book.’”