Medal Grouping of Y2C Robert McCullough Leader
Thought I would share this latest medal grouping. I acquired this from the grandson of the vet. Not an exciting group by any means in terms of the medals themselves, however still a solid representation of a man who served in the US Navy in WWII.
Below are the details on the vet:
Robert McCullough Leader
DOB - 6/28/1926
DOD - 8/25/1998
US Navy Reserves
Enlisted - 7/5/1943 (Age 17)
Discharged - 6/5/1946
During this enlistment, he served on-board the USS Vestal. He was first received on this ship on 5/3/1944. The Vestal was a repair ship that traveled around the Pacific repairing various naval ships during and after battles. The Vestal was also at Pearl Harbor and was docked alongside the Arizona during the attacks.
Robert would have been on-board the Vestal while it made repairs to vessels involved in the invasions on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Robert made a few rank/rate advancements while on-board:
5/3/1944 - S2C (Seaman 2nd Class)
2/1/1945 - S1C (Seaman 1st Class)
7/1/1945 - Y3C (Yeoman 3rd Class)
1/1/1946 - Y2C (Yeoman 2nd Class)
I show that he reenlisted in 1950, I assume for Korea, however no specific details:
Enlisted - 8/7/1950
Discharged - 10/1/1951
BIRLS File
The medals themselves were glued to a terry cloth which in turn was glued to a piece of cardboard. Some time and patience and I was able to remove the medals. Unfortunately, they weren’t taken care of very well as evident by their condition:
Fronts
Reverse
On the reverse of the cardboard was this letter from NPRC. I’m fairly certain the accompanying letter is a result of Robert receiving replacement medals. This is also evident by the later version Good Conduct Medal.
Finally, included was this photo of the USS Vestal with a nice camo scheme..
