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By Marcia Saft A PURPLE-HEART MUSEUM IS PLANNED By Marcia Saft - Organizers in Derby say they have begun to take steps to make the town the site of the nation’s first museum honor- ing recipients of the Purple Heart. They hope the museum’s opening will coincide with the National Convention of the Order of the Purple Heart in Hartford next year. Recently, members of the Derby-based George Washington chapter of the Order have begun to get estimates for a feasibility study and architect’s renderings for renovations on the rarely used Veterans Memorial Building in Derby, which is the proposed site of the museum. They have also been exploring financing alternatives with the help of Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr.’s Connecticut office and the Derby Economic Development Commission. The organizers have not yet deter- mined the final cost of the museum. "We’re not professionals and we got off to a slow start," said Charles B. Beebe of Naugatuck, the chapter’s financial secretary and a Purple Heart recipient who served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. "But we deeply believe in what we’re doing and we’re going to make it work." Derby is a logical place for the museum, Mr. Beebe said, since the first chapter of the Order - George Washington 1 - was founded there in 1932 by Frank Cushner, a newspaper reporter. He added that the first three recipients of the medal, given by George Washington after the Revolutionary War, were soldiers from Connecticut. Frank A. Athanason, adjutant general of the 240 Chapter Order, headquartered in Springfield, Va., said that no museum dedicated to Purple Heart memorabilia exists and that Connecticut would be a fitting location. According to some of the Order’s studies, one out of every 35 vet- erans who were involved in United States military actions have re- ceived the medal. Gary L Thibeault of Seymour, the chapter historian, is also project coordinator of the museum. A former state and chapter commander, he said the museum would be a tourist attraction and a way of show- ing the contributions of Purple Heart recipients. Such items as early medals, weapons, combat flags, and telegrams and letters notifying families that their sons were wounded or killed in action, will be included, Mr. Thibeault said. Organizers hope to secure a long-term lease for the Veterans Mem- orial Building from the town, and, following renovations, make it available for meetings of other veterans’ groups. Early records about the Purple Heart, originally called the Badge of Military Merit, were destroyed when the British burned Washing- ton, D.C. in the War of 1812, Mr. Thibeault said. Only the names of the first three recipients are known. In 1932, the 200th anni- versary of the birth of George Washington, the tradition of giving the award was revived by President Herbert Hoover. The medal has a portrait of George Washington, in white, on a purple heart-shaped background, within a gold frame. Above the portrait is a shield with Washington’s family coat of arms. The back of the medal states, "For Military Merit," while the clasp holds a ribbon 31 TMC 8/86 of purple with white stripes. Originally the Purple Heart was an Army medal, but by the 1940’s, Congress made it apply to Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard personnel. When Governor Ella T. Grasso declared 1982 the Year of the Purple IIeart to commemorate the Order’s bicentennial, a collection of artifacts relating to the Order was taken on tour, Mr. Beebe said. At that time, he added, talk first began about a museum. There are three other chapters of the Order in Connecticut: the Frederick Fleischauer in Groton, the Elijah Hubbard in Middletown and the Nathan Hale in New Haven. Mr. Beebe said he welcomed their help. "If other towns are considering doing this, we hope they will join forces with us," Mr. Beebe said. - Name and date of publication not given (contributed by Raymond E. Nemergut, OMSA #4074). JET ENGINE PIONEER HONORED Sir Frank Whittle, the jet engine pioneer, was presented yesterday with the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II in London. Whittle, 79, who lives near Baltimore, was 22 in 1929 when he had the idea for the jet engine, which has made mass air travel possi- ble. The British Air Ministry rejected the idea. The patents were pub- lished for the whole world to see and the Germans got a jet plane into the air two years before Britain, but not soon enough to af- fect the outcome of World War If. The Order of Merit is Britain’s most coveted civilian decoration. - Courier-Post, June 28, 1986 (contributed by W. A. Wooding, OMSA ROBERT RYDER, VICTORIA CROSS WINNER IN WWII, DIES AT 78 From Times Wire Services - Wareham, England - Robert Ryder, who won the Victoria Cross for leading British naval forces in a daring 1942 commando raid on a German base at St. Nazaire in occupied France, died Sunday aboard a yacht in the English Channel. He was 78. Harbor authorities at Wareham said the retired captain was sailing to Brittany with two other former Royal Navy officers on the yacht Watchdog when he became ill and his companions radioed distress signals. A French helicopter lowered a doctor to the yacht, 16 miles off Guernsey, but he found Ryder dead of an apparent heart attack. In 1942, the Germans had turned St. Nazaire on the French Atlantic coast into a heavily fortified base for warships and submarines. To prevent the dry docks from being used by the formidable battle- ship Tirpitz, Ryder led an assault in which the destroyer Campbel- town, packed with explosives, sailed undetected up the Loire River, rammed the lock gates and blew up. The Campbeltown had once been the U.S. destroyer Buchanan. The commandos suffered heavy losses, with many killed or captured, but Ryder got back to England on a gunboat. His Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest decoration for bravery, was one of five awarded for the raid. 32 TMC 8/86 Ryder, called "Red" because of the initials of his three given names, Robert Edward Dudley, was a Conservative member of Parlia- ment from 1950 to 1955 and a successful businessman. He occasion- ally joined shooting parties with Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II and also a former Navy officer. - Los Angeles Times, July 5, 1986 (contributed by Frank Lockman, OMS)~--Y3b~l-D~im~--i~ pieces contributed by S. G. Yasinitsky and W. A. Wooding). SPANISH MERIT AWARD Zaragoza AB, Spain - Capt. John Medina, 406th Security Police Squadron commander, has received the Spanish Cross of Aeronautical Merit, second class, for his outstanding efforts towards enhancing relations between Spain and the United States. The award is the highest peacetime decoration conferred to a foreign officer. Medina was cited for coordinating search and rescue operations with the Spanish air force and local police after a USAF C-130 crashed near the base, killing all 18 people aboard. When the recovery team had trouble freeing three bodies trapped in the crushed fuse- lage, he crawled in and removed the bodies. He was also cited for assisting the Spanish police with a homicide investigation in which the murderer was located and later convicted. - Air Force Times, July 1986 (contributed by Lt. Col. J. Victor Je~eys,~M~472). BOOK REVIEWS HONOR TO THE AIRBORNE (Part I: Airborne Units; Part 2: The Special Air Service), by David Buxton. West Midlands, England: Elmdon Publishing, 1985. Part i is 158 pages, paper covers. Part 2 is 79 pages, illustrated, also with paper covers. These companion volumes provide the reader with information on the awards to members of British airborne units and the Special Air Service (SAS). They are divided into separate volumes, with Part 1 covering airborne units. This book lists airborne units in separate sections, each of which then contains a series of appen- dices which list awards and decorations to members of the unit by order of precedence of the decorations. These listings also in- clude foreign awards to British airborne units (including United States, French, and Dutch). In some instances, most notably for the Victoria Cross, full citations are given. This is an excellent reference volume, especially for collectors of British airborne medals and militaria. It would be more useful if it had an index; as it is, the reader must search for recipients by their units. The book also provides limited information on the chronology and composition of these units and describes their res- pective insignia. 33 TMC 8/86 .
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