On 16.10.2009, the militaria collecting fraternity received the exciting news via the Gentleman's Military Interest Club (GMIC) that their resident specialist, the late Rick Lundström, had identified and authenticated a medal bar previously belonging to no less a Third Reich personality than GFM und Brillantentrager Walter Model. The medal bar had been spotted by WAF moderator Paul Chepurko, a gold grade member of the GMIC, on a dealer's table at the Gunzenhausen militaria show the previous Friday.
A portrait of Walter Model in 1926 wearing a medal bar without the Third Reich-era awards. So far, so good. Rick Lundström duly weighed in as the tenth contributor. There followed a general scramble by The Faithful to congratulate Mr Chepurko.
However, none of them seemed to have noticed that Mr Chepurko had chosen not to post this amazing news on the Wehrmacht Awards Forum where he was a moderator at the time. The twenty-forth contributor sounded a subtle warning bell.
A few other members posted comments, as readers of the thread, which is still visible, can seen. At this point, Mr Chepurko started getting a tad snippy about what he saw as dissent
On Page 3, forty-six posts into the discussion, evidence of a relationship between Messrs Lundström and Chepurko begins to emerge. How did Mr Chepurko manage to retain the relevant knowledge in his head in order to be able to walk past a dealer's stand and recognise a medal bar as belonging to a Third Reich General Officer, and not just any General Officer but a Field Marshal and Diamonds winner into the bargain?
Did he call up his mentor Rick Lundström, recently appointed guardian of the Eric Ludvigsen archive when he saw the alleged Model relic? If so, how did Lundström manage to confirm it in time for Mr Chepurko to snap it up before Claudio, given that Lundström always claimed not to have computerised any of the records?
These were questions on the minds of several observers but not questions that could easily be posed because, despite claims to the contrary, the GMIC forum was no longer as free as it once had been. Anyone who was perceived as 'attacking' the rather mercurial Lundström could expect to receive a rebuke from the management via the internal messaging system, reminding them that Rick Lundström was a major asset to the GMIC site. The same protection was extended to anyone of whom Lundström seemed to approve. And so, by Post # 53, after some soothing posts from fellow travellers and knowing that he is protected, Paul Chepurko is clearly in a better temper. He also feels able, clearly, talk about how Walter Model might have interpreted military regulations regarding the wearing of medals or ribbons.
Rick Lundström and Paul Chepurko revert to type...
And so it continues until Les offers another common sense-based opinion...
This is followed by a well-illustrated post from PKeating, who asks Mr Chepurko if he has posted the alleged Model medal bar on the WAF, where he is a moderator. A few posts later, the Chairman intervenes...
In the meantime, someone had noticed an earlier reference to the OMSA, Lundström's relationship to senior OMSA officials and, implicitly, his guardianship of the late Eric Ludvigsen's research archive. Further information about the Ludvigsen-Lundström relationship, the OMSA and the murkier aspects of its past can be found here.
Nor, it seems, was Wild Card aware of the lifetime work by the late Eric Ludvigsen, despite Wild Card's specialisation as a collector and student of Imperial German awards and his thirty-year association with the OMSA, whose founder S. Gregory Yasinitsky was a bent policeman and committed con artist with links to serious fakers like Ernst Erich Blass and Dr & Mrs Klietmann.
Jeff McCulloh alias "Ulsterman" chimes in again. Mr McCulloh is a committed member of the OMSA, which has been aiding and abetting the passing of fakes and forgeries into the marketplace for decades.
Mr Chepurko takes the OMSA bait.
The question has since been answered in this article about the "Rounder" Knight's Cross scam and a follow-up article which can be read here, which discusses the OMSA connection. Three posts later, another member of the "New England Cabal" expresses what his friends are all thinking and, doubtless, writing to the GMIC management.
The thread was not removed, unlike the prevailing practice on other militaria-oriented forums like the Wehrmacht Awards Forum, the Axis History Forum and the German-Daggers website, to name just three of the largest and most corrupt of the sites out there. It remains extant as a good example of how internet forums are used as communications tools by shady types seeking to pass off new fakes or legitimise existing fakes.
And at a time when there is a general outpouring of false emotion following the sudden death of Richard Lundström, it serves to remind us, with other examples of Lundström's unfortunate choice of fellow travellers, adopting anyone who stroked his ego and calmed his inferiority complex, that the dead are not above criticism and that serious research material should never be entrusted to people of low moral quality or, like Lundström, those who either cannot tell the difference or prefer not to care as long as they are treated as kingpins in the bubbles they inhabit.
As for the medal bar allegedly belonging to GFM und Brillantentrager Walter Model, the person who believes he recalls assembling it in the 1970s is an Englishman living on the West Coast, whose medal bar assemblies were highly valued at the time by dealers of the calibre of Adrian Forman and others and were often included to spice up document groups to senior officers. To this day, the Model family has no recollection of being contacted by Paul Chepurko, proud discoverer and owner of this incredibly valuable piece of Brilliantentrager-related history.
