WWI, VICTORY MEDAL OPERATIONAL CLASP, MINE SWEEPING U.S. NAVY

The Navy Service Clasp “MINE SWEEPING" is worn on the suspension ribbon of the WWI U.S. Victory Medal. For service on such duty from 06 April 1917, until mine sweeping was completed.

Criteria for the Victory Medal and its clasps were issued by Navy Department General Order No. 482 of 30 June 1919. Sixteen clasps initially were authorized, although only one could be issued to each recipient and worn on the suspension ribbon. A single bronze 3/16-inch bronze star is worn on the service ribbon bar to represent the earned clasp.

Navy service clasps are approximately 1/4-inch wide by 1 1/2 inches long and have a rope border. The Army clasps are far simpler and measure 1/8-inch by 1 1/2-inch long. Both styles are to match very closely the color and finish of the medal itself.

Bureau of Navigation Circular Letter No. 36-20 of 23 April 1920 announced provisions for issuing the Victory Medal, adding that honorable character of service was a precondition for award of the Victory Medal. Recipients were authorized to have engraved on the rim his or her name, rank and the name of the ship or station where he or she served during the war. Discharged or retired Navy personnel applied for their medals either directly to the Navy Department in Washington D.C. or at the nearest Navy Recruiting Office. Active duty personnel applied at their current duty station.

The Victory Medal also was extended to those normally outside the Navy but who had worked alongside naval forces during the war. This included the U.S. Coast Guard, the Lighthouse Service and certain medical officers of the U.S. Public Health Service assigned to duty aboard Coast Guard cutters.

In 1933, the Navy extended the Army's Russia and Siberia service clasps to naval personnel for duty in the following timeframe:

RUSSIA: For service on shore in Northern Russia from 12 November 1918 to 31 July 1919.

SIBERIA: For service on shore in Siberia from 12 November 1918 to 30 March 1920.

Seven years later, on 05 October 1940, the Secretary of the Navy authorized the award of the Army's FRANCE, ENGLAND and ITALY service clasps to personnel of the Navy and Marine Corps who sailed from the U.S. prior to 11 Nov. 1918 enroute to one of these countries, regardless of their date of arrival in that country - even if those personnel were returned to the U.S. without disembarking.

The first formal assignment of clasps was contained in General Order No. 528 of 25 April 1920. Curiously, it also made reference to clasps HOSPITAL SHIP and GUNBOAT, devices never authorized or officially struck. By 1953, the Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual specified clasps for approximately 1,388 ships, all of which are detailed on this web site. 140 of these vessels qualified for two different clasps and two ships qualified for three clasps. Again, a recipient could wear only one earned clasp.