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The World War I Victory Medal is a decoration of the United States military which was first created in 1919, designed by James Earle Fraser. The medal was originally intended to be created by an act of the United States Congress, however the bill authorizing the decoration never passed, leaving the service departments to create the award through general orders.
The United States Army published orders authorizing the World War I Victory Medal in April 1919 and the U.S. Navy followed in June of that same year.
Originally known simply as the "Victory Medal", the World War I Victory Medal was awarded to any member of the U.S. military who had served in the armed forces between the following dates, in the following locations:[2]
April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918 for any military service.
November 12, 1918, to August 5, 1919 for service in European Russia
November 23, 1918, to April 1, 1920 for service with the American Expeditionary Force Siberia
In 1945, the World War II Victory Medal was created as the "Victory Ribbon". Between 1945 and 1947, the two awards were known as the "Victory Medal" and the "Victory Ribbon". In 1947, when the Victory Ribbon became a full-sized medal as the World War II Victory Medal, the World War I Victory Medal adopted its current name. However, some military records as late as the 1950s continued to annotate the decoration by its previous name, and the medal was often referred to as "Victory Medal (WWI)".
The WWI Victory Medals for the US Army veterans were mailed out by the Depot Officer at the General Supply Depot U.S. Army, Philadelphia, PA. The boxes with the medals to the US Army servicemen were mailed out April 1921. The postage area of the boxes were marked "OFFICIAL BUSINESS, Penalty for private use $300." Inside the outer light brown box with an address label glued to it was a white box with the medal. The inner white box that held the medal was ink stamped with the bars the serviceman was supposed to receive on their medal. Inside the white box the medal was wrapped in tissue paper. Because the medals were awarded post WWI they were mailed to the servicemen instead of awarded in person.
The front of the bronze medal features a winged Victory holding a shield and sword on the front. The back of the bronze medal features "The Great Warrior Civilization" in all caps curved along the top of the medal. Curved along the bottom of the back of the medal is six stars. Three on either side of the center column of seven staffs wrapped in a cord. The top of the staff has a round ball on top and is winged on the side. the staff is on top of a shield that says "U" on the left side of the staff and "S" on the right side of the staff. On left side of the staff it lists one country per line: France, Italy, Serbia, Japan, Montenegro, Russia and Greece. On the right side of the staff the country names read: Great Britain, Belgium, Brazil, Portugal, Romania and China
