Gold: Interesting Facts

Meet the criteria for the bronze and silver awards. American Revoltion (1775-1783) Continue to support armor and armor cavalry after Total Servicemembers: 217,000 leaving the service though such activities as: Battle Deaths: 4,435 Professional writing in branch journals or other professionally oriented publications. War of 1812 (1812-1815) Professional speaking in support of armor or cavalry Total Servicemembers: 286,730 in the development of the members of the armored Battle Deaths: 2,260 forces of the US. Serving as Honorary Colonel or Honorary Command Indian Wars (1817-1898) Sergeant Major of a regiment. Total Servicemembers: 106,000 Actively serving as an officer or member of the Battle Deaths: 1,000 Armor Association Executive Council or strongly support the Armor Association activities or projects. Mexican War (1846-1848) Total Servicemembers: 78,718 Unfortunately, the Armor Association was unable to Battle Deaths: 1,733 supply the number of each type of medal awarded thus far. While the association has also not kept up with the Civil War (1861-1865) history of this recent award, it is hoped that this brief Total Servicemembers: 2,213,363 article has alerted OMSA members to the presence of Battle Deaths: 140,414 these three impressive looking awards that have been given to many of America’s current and recent armor Spanish-American War (1898-1902) leaders. Total Servlcemembers: 306,760 Battle Deaths: 385

World War I (1917-1918) Total Servicemembers: 4,734,991 OMSA member Douglas Scott, who published an article Battle Deaths: 53,402 and an addendum about the medallic awards of the De- partment of the Interior in JOMSA in 1997 and 1998, has World War II (1941-1945) himself received the Departmnt of the Interior Distin- Total Servicemembers: 16,112,566 guished Service Award at a ceremony in Washington, D. Battle Deaths: 291,557 C., on September 4, 2002. Scott received the DSA, the highest honor that can be bestowed on civilian employ- Korean War (1950-1953) ees by the Department, in recognition of outstanding ca- Total Servicemembers: 5,720,000 reer achievements as an archaeologist with the Bureau Battle Deaths: 33,686 of Land Management and the National Park Service. He was nominated for this distinction by OMSA member Vietnam War (1964-1975) Thomas D. Thiessen. Total Servicemembers: 3,100,000 Battle Deaths: 47,410 Doug is especially known for his pioneering innovative archeological research on battlefields of the American Gulf War (1990-1991) Indian wars and the Civil War, including the Little Big- Total Servicemembers: 1,136,658 horn B attlefield National Monument and the Sand Creek Battle Deaths: 147 Massacre site. Using methodology developed from these researches, he has adapted archeological techniques to America’s Wars Total the forensic investigations of international war crimes in Total Servicemembers: 42,348,460 Third World nations including E1 Salvador, Bosnia, Battle Deaths: 650,954 Croatia, Ruwanda, and Cyprus. From Department of Veterans Affairs, October 2002 Submitted by Melvin D. Mueller Submitted by Thomas D. Thiessen.

26 JOMSA The MISAB and MINURCA Medals signed. The four heads of state comprised an international committee designated to oversee implementation of the Edward J. Emering Agreements. The four heads of state, lead by General Toure of , determined that it was in the best interest of peace to establish an Inter-African Mission to Monitor The former French colony of Ubangi-Shari became the the Implementation of the B angui Agreements (MISAB). upon being granted MISAB’s primary goal would be to restore peace and independence on August 13, 1960. It lies between security through on-going monitoring of the and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly the Agreements. An integral part of this mission was the Belgian Congo (Figure 1). After three tumultuous disarmament of the rebels and all other unlawful decades of misrule, mostly by military dictatorships, a individuals. democratically elected civilian government was installed in 1993. MISAB was formally established on February 8, 1997. It was initially composed of approximately 800 troops from , Chad, , and Mali. Troops from and Togo subsequently joined MISAB. These forces were supplemented by 1,400 French troops. Gabon assumed command of MISAB, which was supported financially and logistically by France. The action was endorsed by the United Nations in its Resolution 1125 of August 6, 1997. MISAB performed its mission well and made tremendous strides toward restoring calm and recovering illegally held weapons. MISAB was cited as a prototype for future regional peacekeeping missions.

With the withdrawal of French support for MISAB during mid-April 1998, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1159 on March 27, 1998, which established the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA). MINURCA, hastily assembled, officially succeeded MISAB on April 15, 1998. Contributors to MINURCA were Burkina Faso, Canada, Chad, Ivory Coast, Egypt, France, Gabon, Mali, Senegal and Togo. Many of the same troops, who had served in MISAB, continued to serve in MINURCA. Figure 1: Map of Ubangi-Shari Following a period of stability ensuing from the 1999 democratic elections, the United Nations Peace-Building In 1996, the Central African Republic underwent a Support Office in the Central African Republic political-military crisis, including three mutinies by (BONUCA) replaced MINURCA on February 15, 2000. elements within its armed forces. The crisis was rooted Disorder again erupted during 2001. Fighting ensued in public discontent over social and economic problems between the Presidential Guard and rebellious factions coupled with the non-payment of salaries to the country’s of the country’s army. The rebellious army unit was military personnel. The 19th Summit Meeting of the composed almost entirely of former mutineers from the heads of state and governments of France and Africa, earlier troubles in 1996-1997. The issue was again related held during December 1996, was concerned with the to payment of military salaries and tensions caused by apparent disintegration of law and order, particularly in the unrest in the neighboring Congo. This time, the the capital city of Bangui. It was decided to respond to a Central African government was stable enough to request for help by Central Africa’s president, Ange-Felix maintain control. During August of 2002, the trial of the Patasse. As a result, the presidents of neighboring rebellion leaders resumed in Bangui. It had been delayed countries, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali for five months by a boycott staged by defense attorneys. journeyed to Bangui where they negotiated a peace To this day, the Central African Republic remains a between the forces of President Patsse and the rebels. potential trouble spot. Tension along the borders with On January 25, 1997, the Bangui Agreements were Chad and the Congo continues to this day.

Vol. 54, No. 1 27 Forces serving with MISAB received the little-known Forces serving with MINURCA received the standard MISAB medal. The high-quality MISAB Medal, UN medal with a ribbon drape specific to the mission in manufactured in France, is a large, 50mm silver six- the Central African Republic. The UN standard medal pointed star. The medal is suspended from a 36mm light is a 36mm bronze planchet, used for all of its blue ribbon with twolmm white stripes 2mm from each peacekeeping operations. The obverse (Figure 3) features edge and four central 2mm stripes of dark blue, yellow, a polar azimuth, equidistant globe surrounded by a red and green. The obverse (Figure 2) consists of a 28mm semicircular olive branch pattern and the letters UN at central bronze disk. The inscription MISAB is curved the top. The reverse is inscribed: IN THE SERVICE OF around the top and BANGUI 97 around the lower half PEACE. Only the ribbon combination is changed to of the disk. A star on either side of the disk separates reflect the specific mission. The ribbon for the these two inscriptions. A map of Africa is in the center MINURCA mission consists ten 3mm stripes and a of the disk with two shaking hands in a gesture of central 6ram stripe of light blue. The 3mm stripes are, friendship at the top and a broken assault rifle at the from the left, blue, white and red (the colors of France) bottom, denoting the disarmament function of the followed by green, yellow and the larger light blue central mission. The reverse also features a similar 28ram central stripe (the colors of the Central African Republic). The disk with the names of the participating African remaining five stripes then reverse (yellow, green, red, countries, BURKINA FASO, CHAD, GABON, MALI, white and blue) moving to the right. Qualifying time for SENEGAL and TOGO around the edge. In the center is the UN MINURCA medal was 90 days of service in the a map of the Central. African Republic with the inscription, RCA (Republic of Central Africa).

Figure 2: Obverse of the MISAB Medal Figure 3: Obverse of the UN MINURCA Medal

28 JOMSA