{"id":35875,"date":"2013-05-29T18:38:49","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T22:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=35875"},"modified":"2013-05-30T06:23:55","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T10:23:55","slug":"colonel-john-joseph-gaynor-wwii-embellisher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=35875","title":{"rendered":"Colonel John Joseph Gaynor; WWII embellisher"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gaynor\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

Our buddy, Doug Sterner, sent along this information the other night about John Joseph Gaynor in the above picture from 2011. Here’s his auto-bio;<\/p>\n

Born in Brooklyn, NYC and graduated from High School in June, 1042. Enlisted in the Army that August and was sent to Camp Blanding, Florida for Infantry basic. Upon completion of basic, I volunteered for airborne school. Took jump training at Ft. Benning, Ga. Upon graduating, I received orders assigning me to \u201cF\u201d company, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and 82nd Airborne Div. at Ft. Bragg, NC. Was sent to North Africa in May 1943 where I trained for combat jump into Sicily. Upon completing our mission we made a jump into Italy. When that was over we sailed to England. Later I jumped into Ste Mere Eglise on June 6th, 1944 as a pathfinder. Then I made a drop into Holland on Sept. 17, 1944. During the fight in Belgium I was commissioned a 2nd Lt. Platoon leader. Later I was promoted to 1st Lt. Division returned to USA in January 1945. I went to Korea in 1950 as a Captain, Company Commander and when I returned to USA was promoted to major and assigned as Prof. of Military Science, Peekskill Academy in upper New York in 1957. I was promoted to Lt. Col. 1961 while in Melbourne, FL and in 1965 I returned to Ft. Bragg as exec to 2nd Bn. 505 PIR. Was promoted to Colonel as regimental commander of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the same outfit I started with as a buck private. I retired in September 1972. Since I had my Juris Doctor Degree, I entered law practice in Palm Beach, FL as a tax attorney. I moved to Palm Bay in November 2006. I have been a Charter Member of the 82nd Airborne Div. Assoc. since May 1944 having joined in England. Recently I was awarded the French Legion of Honor w\/Degree of Chevalier to go along with a Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star (v), Purple Heart (2x), French Croix De Guerre avee Palm, 4 battle stars, various Korean and European medals and Presidential citation among others. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But Army records tell a very different story;<\/p>\n

\"Gaynor<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

According to the FOIA, he joined the Army, not in 1942, but 1943. And it looks like he stayed in the Reserves and never deployed to Korea and left the service as a 1LT, no jump wings. According to his assignments, he wasn’t assigned to the 82d (325th Glider Infantry) until November 1945, six months after the war, three years before the glider infantry units were disbanded and reconstituted as parachute regiments.<\/p>\n

\"Gaynor<\/a> <\/center><\/p>\n

So what’s he wearing in that picture?<\/p>\n

\"C\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

The ribbon between the ArCom and the GCM looks like a POW Medal. The ribbon directly below the ArCom is the American Service Medal issued for service September 8, 1939 and December 7, 1941 – he didn’t enlist until 1943. The ribbon directly below that one is the World War II Victory Medal for service between December 7, 1941 and December 31, 1946. Next to the American Service medal is the American Campaign Medal for service during WWII in the “American Theater of Operations” (currently known as CONUS plus Alaska). Next to that is the European-Africa Middle Eastern Campaign Medal. The last row are medals from the Korean War and, apparently, he didn’t serve in the Korean War.<\/p>\n

The oval behind the jump wings is from the 507th PIR, he never served in that unit which was attached to the 82d through Normandy and then the 17th Airborne Division for their jump into Southern France. He’s wearing the 505th’s unit crest another unit with which he never served. Yeah, I know, no one wears two French Fourrag\u00e8re or on the right shoulder.<\/p>\n

He has been asked to produce proof that he earned the Distinguished Service Medal<\/del> Cross, he has produced only excuses thus far. There’s also no proof for the Bronze Star Medal for Valor or the Purple Heart.<\/p>\n

Here’s the picture from which I cropped the medals;<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our buddy, Doug Sterner, sent along this information the other night about John Joseph Gaynor in … Colonel John Joseph Gaynor; WWII embellisher<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phony-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}