WWII era US Navy Reserve USNR dress dinner tunic? Rare? Bullion insignia

[excalibr]

I recently acquired this wonderful tunic. I have tried to do some research, but it seems there is not alot out there on vintage USNR items (or else I'm not looking in the right places). Some have told me this may be a WWII Merchant Marine uniform? The tag dates this to 1946. It is named. It is in great condition with what appears to be gold bullion insignia. I have NO idea what the ribbon bar is for! I am trying to get info on this....is it rare? What is the ribbon bar? Are the 3 stripes for rank? Thanks and hopefully I can get some more info on this stunning tunic!

Bill

[milmuseum]

It looks like a Merchant Marine Pacific War Zone ribbon. Nice uniform!

[excalibr]

I checked out the Merchant Marine Pacific War Zone medal and I think you are correct! I never searched for anything like that. I was searching Navy medals. Hmmm...this is not a Merchant Marine uniform is it?

[milmuseum]

There were US navy and Reserve seamen assigned to Merchant Marine vessles during the war. Usually onle one or two per ship. Many of them acted as gunners, radiomen and signalmen. I had a friend, Moon Mullen who had that assignment during the war. Moon joined the Navy on Dec 7 1941 after hearing the news about Pearl Harbor. He served in the Pacific and Atlantic in Merchant Marine convoys. He had some great stories about ships getting hit on both sides of him by the Wolf packs in the Atlantic. He was scared to death while on those convoys. The uniform is a Mess Dress for special ocassions.

I am not familiar with the insignia but in my opinion it is for a Chief Petty Officer with 12 years Good Conduct. It is missing quite a few ribbons if thats the case.

[excalibr]

Thanks for the info! The tunic is named, so I may try to get his records from the archives and then I can get the ribbons that belong on the tunic (if any) and complete the look.

[trygstad]

This is a United States Merchant Marine Academy Midshipman full dress blue jacket; the sleeve insignia is for a first-class Midshipman. It has the Merchant Marine Pacific War Zone medal ribbon, and the the Naval Reserve Merchant Marine Insignia indicating that a Merchant Marine officer holds a rank in the United States Naval Reserve, in this case the rank of Midshipman. Since it has the tag with the name of the Midshipman it has great provenance. I have seen Naval Academy full dress blue jackets with no historical value listed on eBay for $250 so this should be worth a great deal more, but it is a very narrow range of collectors who would be interested in the jacket.

[excalibr]

Thanks for the additional info! I am keeping these replies with the jacket and when I get time I am going to try to search the name and see if I can get more info on the person. Thanks again