First off, thanks to Fred Johnson for pointing us to this new TV show about the Manhattan Project. Fred noticed some oddities in the awards and uniforms of some of the military personnel represented in the show and suggested we do a “Hollywood Heroes” article on it. Thanks, Fred.
The “Manhattan Project” was a very large and very secret program that ultimately helped end the Second World War, when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. The two primary players were J. Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist from UC Berkley, and Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, who was appointed the overall project director.
“Manhattan” is a TV series on WGN that loosely follows the events surrounding the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos in 1943. This series isn’t so much about the story of Oppenheimer and Groves, but rather, it follows the drama of the “rank and file” folks who were working at Los Alamos. The cast includes one character in particular that caught my eye; Colonel Alden Cox (Mark Moses). In the first season, Colonel Alden Cox is the head of the base.
Here’s a picture of the Colonel:
This picture is from the very first episode.
Is this a rack you’d expect?
Here’s the Colonel’s rack from the MyServicePride.com rackbuilder. They are in the correct order of wear.
However, remembering that this show takes place during World War II (Sometime in 1943) only one of the awards he’s wearing actually existed at the time. The Presidential Unit Citation was established in 1941 and was originally the Distinguished Unit Citation. All the others are yet to be established in 1943.
1. 
The Army Commendation Medal – Established 1945
2. WWII Victory Medal – Established 1945
3. Army of Occupation Medal – Established 1946
4. National Defense Service Medal – Established 1953
5. Korean Service Medal – Established 1950
6. United Nations Medal for Korea – Established 1950
7. Army Meritorious Unit Award – Established 1944
If they got this so subtly wrong, what about other details?
This makes me wonder how the uniform was even selected. The awards are pretty close to correct for someone in the late ’50s to early 60s. Did they look up “Army Colonel” and the person they copied was from this time frame? That would explain why it’s mostly correct, but for a wrong period.
In addition to the awards being wrong, the other insignia on the uniform are also out of place. It becomes interesting, though, when we look at this same character, later in the series.
They’ve fixed almost all the problems here. The awards are more appropriate and the uniform insignia have been corrected. For comparison, here are the 2 uniforms together, along with picture of Colonel Jimmy Stewart in 1941.
You’ll notice some subtle changes. The Colonel rank is gone from the collar, they’ve added Engineer Corps branch insignia to the coat lapel, and the Colonel rank has been shifted from the middle of the shoulder strap to the end. There are still two thing wrongs with the middle picture.
First, the Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal wasn’t distributed until 1947. (Though it was retroactive to 1941)
I’ll leave the second uniform mess-up for you to find. I feel like a career soldier wouldn’t walk out the front door with this out of place. Can you spot it?
This is the first time I’ve ever seen a uniform get fixed in a show, and I’d like to know the story behind the fix. Did they get lots of emails from people pointing out the errors? Did just one person contact them? It seems like they at least consulted with someone like Captain Rick to get the changes made correctly.
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