Silver Star Medal Mystery! HELP!

[uh60]

If you know his name look on homeofheros.com Might be listed there, its broken down into wars and Branches of service. My dads was there under Korean war.

[Massaro27th]

Hello everyone. I'm the friend of GIZMO8Z. I appreciate everyone's help so far. I have done alot of research on my grandfathers military service and even requested a re-issuance of all his medals and decorations. Unfortunately, the silver star and even the bronze star (which we do have, with his name on it) was not re-issued to us. I have also bought books and searched records in an effort to solve this mystery. After going over his discharge papers, I noticed that only 3 medals were listed (American Defense, Asiatic Pacific Service and a Good Conduct Medal.) The medal pictured in the top middle is a conspicous service cross which was awarded by the state of New York in 1977. However, their are many unanswered questions about my grandfather. Although I cant post his army picture at this time (the one pictured on the wall in the photo) his uniform clealry shows him wearing a USMC expert badge right next to his US army expert badge. He never served in the USMC. Also the Army expert badge in the photo has 3 bars hanging from it which were also lost. Looking at these lost items leads me to believe that his silver star must of also been lost. I beleive a reason why all the ribbons are out of whack is because he must of framed all that stuff sometime after receiving his state medal in 1977 and forgot the order of precendence. Another mystery is he was discharged as a Private First Class despite being a Staff Sergeant. Here is what I know. My grandfathers name was Peter J Massaro. He served in company A, 106th Infantry, 27th Division (New York) and saw combat action in Saipan and Okinawa. His discharge papers list the following information- He was a Staff Sergeant. Military Occupational Specialty- Platoon Leader 745. M-1 Rifle Sharp Shooter June 24 1943. Under a section labled "remarks" it says M-03 Rifle Expert Dec 4th 1944. He had 39 months of foreign service from March 10th, 1942 to June 12th, 1945 and was discharged June 29th, 1945. I know these are alot of questions but I appreciate any input.

[RedArmyCollector]

Glad to see you on the forums! As for this mystery, it is odd that in the photo a USMC badge is being worn along with his Army badge during World War II. I've been looking around and found that many Army and Marines had the others qualification badges. This continued till the 1930's when new regulations came into play. Do you know when he enlisted?

[Massaro27th]

Thanks for your input RedArmyCollector. That explains one mystery. He enlisted June 8th 1939 and entered active service on October 15th 1940. I can only guess that the picture of him was taken sometime after 1942? Because in the picture his uniform has Sergeant chevrons (E-5) aswell as a NCO whistle.

[RedArmyCollector]

It's odd that he would have a USMC expert badge if he enlisted in 1939.