Dave Danner

1864-1918/1935 might be more accurate. As an official state order, the SEHO ceased with the abdication of the dukes of the three Saxon duchies in 1918. However, the former rulers generally assumed the right to issue house orders as private decorations after that date. Private awards were banned by a law enacted on May 15, 1934, with the law coming into effect on November 15, 1935.

QUOTE(JBFloyd @ Jan 14 2007, 20:32 ) ← Many of the Cuban Republic's orders were made by Villardebo y Riera, a Havana firm that made insignia of the highest quality (as shown in the photos). They also made some order insignia for other Latin American countries. Indeed:

Of course, all I have from Cuba is this poor lonely Grand Cross (1st Class) set.

A Knight's Badge was sold this morning in the Galerie Numismatique auction in New York. I got there late so I don't know how much it went for (or, actually, whether it was bid on at all). http://www.coins-la-galerie-numismatique.c...0&id=209923 Click for larger image

Trying to find ones that I have images already scanned of, since my scanner is down. Order of the Republic Order of the Nile

"Sash" is وشاح or wishāh (wi?āh if your browser supposrts little diacritical marks). "Merit" is إستحقاق or istihqāq. No extra "a". This pattern where "isti-" is prefixed on a 3-letter root in the form CCāC (where C is any consonant) is often seen in abstract nouns, for example إستقِلال istiqlāl, "independence". So the name, as it reads on the order, is وشاح الإستحقاق, or wi?āh al-'istihqāq, or wishah al-istihqaq in a looser transliteration more comfortable to English readers. The obverse has "Qatar" in the center (along with a fleck of bread? ) The reverse reads وسام الخدمة الجيدة, or wisām al-khidmat al-jayyidah, or Outstanding Service Decoration. Wisām comes from the root which means to brand (as in cattle), to mark, or to stamp. The closest literal equivalents would be English "sign" or German "Zeichen"; we generally translate Ehrenzeichen in German awards as "decoration", so I figure "decoration" might be appropriate for wisām. Jayyid literally means "good" but also has meanings of "perfect" and "outstanding"; the latter sounded more phaleristic.

In one of the many sales because I needed money at the time but which I now regret, about a decade ago I sold both the Kingdom type (as shown) and the Republic type (as described, uniface with the old reverse moved to the front). The pair went for about $80. They're likely worth more now, given inflation and the fact that there hasn't exactly been a flood of Egyptian medals on the market to drive the price down. Of course, price also depends on demand, so "value" depends on what someone is willing to pay.

Not very well. Copying and pasting and fixing and getting frustrated because "backspace" doesn't always go back in the Arabic text. On this one, I would call it the Commemorative Medal of Muhammad Ali, except there's another word at the end I can't make out on the reverse. The first four words are ____ميدالية ذكرى محمد علي ال or mīdāliyya dikrā muhammad `alī al-_____, followed by the word I can't make out. So it is "Commemorative Medal of Muhammad Ali the _____." Dikrā (dhikrā or ?ikrā in standard Arabic) means remembrance or recollection. The obverse has Muhammad Ali the Great (al-kabīr) on the left side and King Farouk I (al-malik fārūq al-'awwal)on the right. Farouk still seems to be the standard Western spelling of his name, based on the Wikipedia entry.

Star is najma (نجمة) in Arabic. In the Cairo dialect dominant in Egypt, "j"s become "g"s, but the word is still feminine. So وسام النجمة العسكرية is wisaam al-nagma al-`askariyya. Arabic transliteration isn't really well-standardized, though, given not just the dialect differences and lack of an agreed set of correspondences for letters (aa or A for the long "a", for example), but also the objectives: do you transliterate to facilitate spelling or pronounciation? If the latter, for example, an-nagma is preferable since the "l" of al- is lost before certain consonants.

Would that there were! The guy who runs D-Day Militaria, whose name escapes me (but Jeff Floyd should remember), has a book listing Belgian awards to Americans. The page for that book has the basic statistics: http://www.ddaymilitaria.com/belgium_ww2.htm I haven't seen anything for other countries.

Are you referring specifically to the Military Medal, i.e., the M?daille militaire, not just any military medal? If so, in World War One, according to the 1923 report Daniel quotes above, there were 304 awards of the M?daille militaire to Americans. I think in World War Two and Korea, though, the M?daille militaire was not awarded to Americans, as American soldiers with French decorations seem to have only the L?gion d'honneur or the Croix de guerre (and maybe some colonial orders like Patton's Ouissam Alaouite).

Wow! Quite graceless. Well, you're welcome anyway.

No doubt a disinformation campaign to get people to actually care about Canadian money.

Rick is probably right about the 22. Infanterie-Division, given the Russian Front connection, but just for the general knowledge base, there is at least one other unit with a strong Waldeck/Saxe-Meiningen connection: Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 466. IR 466 was formed on November 6, 1916 by Stellv. Gen. Kdo. XI. Armeekorps and became part of 239. Infanterie-Division. Its I. Bataillon Stab and 1. and 2. Kompanien were raised from the 1. Ersatz-Bataillon of IR 83 and its 12. Kompanie was raised by the Ersatz-Bataillon of RIR 83. Both IR 83 and RIR 83 were mixed Kurhessen and Waldeck units, with RIR 83's rear headquartered in Waldeck's capital Arolsen. 4. Kompanie of I. Bataillon and 11. Kompanie of III. Bataillon came from the 2. Ersatz-Bataillon of IR 32. The staff of III. Bataillon and its 9. and 10. Kompanien came from the 1. Ersatz-Bataillon of IR 32. IR 32 was Saxe-Meiningen's regiment. The rest of the regiment was Kurhessisch. The rest of the 239. Infanterie-Division was mainly Kurhessisch, Nassauisch and Thuringian. 239. Infanterie-Division spent the war on the Western Front, though, so it wouldn't have had the Austrian connection that 22. ID had.

Oldenburg and Waldeck were in different regiments. Waldeckers were, as you surmised, in IR 370. Oldenburgers ended up in IR 368. Brigade-Ersatz-Bataillon Nr. 43, the one with the Waldeck component, became II./IR 370. Brigade-Ersatz-Bataillon Nr. 28, raised from the Ersatz Bataillone of FR 39 and IR 159, became I./IR 370. Brigade-Ersatz-Bataillon Nr. 79, raised from the Ersatz Bataillone of IR 56 and IR 57, became III./IR 370. So besides Waldeck, IR 370's troops were from Prussian Kurhessen, Westfalen and Rheinprovinz. Brigade-Ersatz-Bataillon Nr. 37, which was raised from the Ersatz Bataillone of IR 78 and IR 91, became I./IR 368. At some point, IR 368 left the 10. Ersatz-Division and joined 213. Infanterie-Division, cutting off the Oldenburg/Waldeck connection. The rest of IR 368 was from Hannover and Braunschweig - Brig.Ers.B 37 = I./IR 368, 38 = II./IR 368, 39 = III./IR 368 and 40 = IV./IR 368 - but IV./IR 368, which included the Braunschweig elements, became III./RIR 273 in the fall of 1916. IR 369 was mainly from Westfalen and Rheinprovinz, but included Lippe-Detmold elements: Brig.Ers.Btl. 25, 26, 27 became I., II. and III./IR 369 respectively. IR 371 was raised from Prussian Saxony, Kurhessen, Reuss, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. Brig.Ers.B 44 = I/IR 371; Brig.Ers.B 76 = II/IR 371, Brig.Ers.B 83 = III/IR 371.

1961 40th Anniversary of the Republic

There were a couple of medals that fit that name. The "M?daille Militaire de la Garde d?Ha?ti" was a decoration created in the late 1920s, when the Garde d?Ha?ti was created from the US-trained Gendarmerie d'Ha?ti. I used to have one of these. They were made, IIRC, by Bailey, Banks and Biddle of Philadelphia. The "Ordre de Jean Jacques Dessalines pour M?rite Militaire", was a Haitian military order, awarded to Haitians and foreigners. I know the name isn't exactly the same, but the "looooong gone John" asked about the one that was awarded to Marines. Marines like Chesty Puller and Alexander Vandegrift, whose bios include the "Haitian Medaille Militaire", did not serve in Haiti during the Garde period, but earlier. Chesty was there from 1919 to 1924, Vandegrift from 1916 to 1918 and 1919 to 1923. If you look at their ribbons, you will see a half-red, half-black ribbon near or at the end - this is the ribbon of the Ordre de Jean Jacques Dessalines pour M?rite Militaire. This dealer website has some pictures of these two and other Haitian decorations: http://www.medal-medaille.com/index.php?cPath=66 Puller (note that Puller has the colors reversed, with the black before the red): Vandegrift:

In Gen. Mataxis' case, having spent several years in Vietnam as an ARVN corps advisor and as a brigade commander, assistant division commander and acting division commanding general, he spent a fair amount of time in observation helicopters over the battlefield. This tended to rack up a lot of Air Medal qualifying hours.

Possibly, Werner. The only problem is the ribbon bar, which indicates that even though he is a Bavarian, the Sachsen-Meiningen award came before the Bavarian award.

So perhaps there is a chance of finally narrowing down who our Bavarian friend might be?

1. Army DSM, Silver Star, LOM (2 OLC), DFC 2. Bronze Star Medal (V & 3 OLC), Air Medal (V & 32 or 33 ?), JSCM, ARCOM (V & 3 OLC), Purple Heart (1 OLC) 3. National Order of Vietnam 5th Class, RVN Army Gallantry Cross with 2 palms & 2 gold stars, RVN Army Distinguished Service Order, RVN Armed Forces Honor Medal 1st Class, RVN Air Service Medal, Cambodian Medal of National Defense with palm 4. American Defense Service, American Campaign, EAME with 3 bronze stars (Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe), Army of Occupation with Germany clasp, WW2 Victory, NDSM with OLC 5. UN Medal (for UNMOGIP), Korea Service with 3 bronze stars , UN Service Medal, Vietnam Service with 8 bronze stars, RVN Campaign Medal, ROK War Service Medal IIRC, he also had a class of the Laotian Order of a Million Elephants and White Parasol. CIB with 2 stars, Master Parachutist's Badge, Army Staff Identification Badge, etc. I don't know if he received a decoration from Iran after his tour with the MAAG. I don't remember him mentioning one or seeing one listed in his Whi's Who bio, and there isn't one in the picture. I do remember that he once went hunting lions with the Shah and his party somewhere on the Caspian.

Not a complete one handy. He was born in 1917, commissioned from ROTC in 1940, a lieutenant colonel by 1945. War sometimes tends to speed up promotions. He kept his rank after the war when others were being reduced to their permanent grades, but didn't get his colonel's eagle until Korea and remained a colonel for well over a decade after that. He commanded 2nd Battalion, 276th Infantry, 70th Infantry Division as a major during Operation Nordwind, the German counteroffensive in Lorraine in the winter of 1944-45. After the war, he served in the occupation and was involved in the oral history project debriefing German officers on their combat experiences against the Soviets. He attended the Indian Defence Staff College and then served as an observer with UNMOGIP before deploying to Korea. In Korea he commanded the 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. In 1959, he took command of the 1st Airborne Battle Group, 505th Infantry, 8th Infantry Division. This was during the "Pentomic" era when Army division were organized into 5 battlegroups rather than brigades or regiments. In Vietnam he was Senior Advisor to ARVN II Corps and then commander, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. He returned to the states as Assistant Division Commander, 82nd Airborne Division, in 1965. He was Army Section Chief, Military Assistance Advisory Group, Empire of Iran, from 1968 to 1970 and then back to Vietnam in 1970 as Assistant Division Commander and then acting Division Commander of the Americal Division. He then went to Cambodia as Chief of the Joint Military Equipment Team before retiring in 1972. I remember him telling me he was assigned as a speechwriter/aide for General Maxwell D. Taylor, but I don't recall if that was when Taylor was Army Chief of Staff or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I think it was the latter. Here is the "Ordenskisse" from his funeral:

His son retired as a Lt. Colonel and a battalion commander in 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) in the mid-1990s. I think there was a grandson in a commissioning program around then, but I didn't know the rest of the family that well.

I should add that Gen. Mataxis was rather proud of his CIB with 2 stars, far more than any other decoration he had received in his 32-year career, as it was the one that you earned in the mud with the troops. He always called it his "Perfect Attendance Award".

The guy on the left is one of them. Ted Mataxis, a good friend and mentor of mine who died earlier this year. He commanded a company and a battalion in World War II, a regiment in Korea, and an advisory mission, a brigade and a division in Vietnam, among numerous other assignments.