Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

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Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

Spent a couple hours noodling around a local patch of San Francisco turf and toward the end of the day, expecting a wheatie, pulled this out:

Post-09-05-10-01.webp

Not too old but a pretty damn cool find. A little internet search confirmed it as a medal awarded to surviving S.F. soldiers returning from the front lines of WWI!

"I believe what you have is a medal presented to SF soldiers returning from World War I.

During the war, the Army organized a unit of local men up and designated it "363rd Infantry Regiment, 91st Infantry Division." The unit was quickly nicknamed "San Francisco's Own" and saw extensive action in the Meusse-Argonne offensive of 1918. (My great uncle was in the 363rd and died in that battle.)

When the 363rd returned home in 1919 the City hosted a huge parade on Market Street and rally at Civic Center. I think you have a memento presented to one of "San Francisco's Own" at the time of that homecoming."

The reverse, 980/100 Silver:

Post-09-05-10-02.webp

And another cool link: http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/wwi-san-francisco-returning-soldiers-75441843

I can just see the parade down Market Street, and can only imagine what the person wearing this must have seen in that war... Pretty amazing.

Thanks for looking!
 
Upvote 2
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

That is a very cool find and the medal is in such great condition.
Check out this link, there is a photo of the parade from April 23 1919.
http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist10/sfsown.html

I would contact the Museum (it is a virtual museum of the history of San Francisco in an online format), tell them your story and submit your photos. I'm sure they would be thrilled to add your medal to the page commemorating the return of the soldiers.
 

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Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

Nice piece of fine silver, :o that is finer than Sterling silver at (.925)!! :icon_thumleft:

Keep @ it and HH !! :D ;D
 
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

that is a cool find :icon_thumright:
 
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

Oh! Awesome..Thats a Cool piece of history
 
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

Thanks for the comments guys! And thanks Mr. Larry for the link! That's awesome!
 
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

Nice silver and nice piece of history!
 
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

Wow!! Outstanding find... hmm.. hardpressed to see SF ever putting out something to honor returning troops again!! That is a rare item!!!

MB
 
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

Very cool :icon_thumright:
 
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

nice save on some great history!!!!!!!!!!! MR TUFF
 
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

MonkeyBoy said:
Wow!! Outstanding find... hmm.. hardpressed to see SF ever putting out something to honor returning troops again!! That is a rare item!!!

MB

Nice find, probably from a park I've pounded in the past.

SF has not always been the land of fruit and nuts. During WWI & WWII most of its citizens were just as patriotic as any other American city, maybe even more so due to all that soldiers and sailors passing through. During WWII navy guys on ship while passing under the Golden Gate Bridge on their way to the war in the pacific would say: "Golden Gate in 48".
 
Re: Medal: "San Francisco to Her Warrior Sons"

Beautiful find, nice to see some WWI stuff being dug and posted here.
Carl
 

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