PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear Fellow OMSA Obama signed into law in December, includes Texas Members: Senator John Cornyn’s legislation awarding the Purple Heart to the victims of the Fort Hood shootings. Forty Years of JOMSA on Our Website. I’m happy The issue has been controversial. The Obama to announce the “JOMSA administration opposed awarding the Purple Heart Archive” is now available because it maintained that the Fort Hood shootings were on our website, www.omsa. really tantamount to workplace violence, and did not org, with over 40 years of qualify as an act of international terrorism for which the the JOMSA available in Purple Heart could be awarded. The Military Order of the an electronic format. To Purple Heart, a veterans group representing about 45,000 access the JOMSA digital Purple Heart recipients, agreed with the administration; archive, hover your cursor it opposed Purple Hearts for the same reason. Similarly, over the “Publications” the Veterans of Foreign Wars, after conducting a survey section of the upper toolbar then move down to “The of its members, opposed changing the Purple Heart’s OMSA Journal” and a further bar will appear to the right; eligibility criteria to make the Fort Hood victims eligible. click on “JOMSA Archive Access” and you are there. You On the other hand, the American Legion labeled the Fort will be able to search the archive, using the Google search Hood shooting an act of terrorism and supported giving engine, or browse through the issues by year. You must Purple Hearts to the victims. be logged into our website to access the JOMSA archive. If you haven’t registered yet, please do so; if you have You should expect to see more in the future about these any difficulty contact us at: contentmanagers@omsa. new Purple Hearts, since any member of the Armed org. Over the years the Journal has revealed an amazing Forces “killed or wounded in domestic attacks inspired amount of research. Now this research is available to by foreign terrorist organizations” is now eligible for the all our members regardless of how recently they joined. Purple Heart. As for Nidal Hasan, he was convicted at a general court-martial of 13 counts of premeditated murder Please note that not all past issues have been scanned; and 32 counts of attempted murder. He is on death row at some must still be located. Additionally, there will always the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. be a few years of “lag” in digitizing JOMSA. There are Long-Range Planning. As some of you know, our a number of reasons for this but the chief reason is that sister society in Portugal recently hosted an international most members still like getting JOMSA in print form and phaleristics colloquium on World War I, and a few of our a solely digital JOMSA only goes as far as your computer, OMSA members attended this November 2014 event tablet or other device. A physical copy will remain the in Lisbon. For 2015, the Orders and Medals Research first option. A complete index of theJournal will appear Society is sponsoring an international phaleristics on the website shortly and will be updated annually. conference in London; regrettably it is already ‘sold out.’ But for 2016, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Credit for these huge achievements on our website Ordenskunde, our sister organization in Germany, will belongs to Vice President Chris Cawthorne and Directors host an International Phaleristics Conference in Dresden. Peter Lomdahl and John Allgood. It will be at the end of May or beginning of June 2016. For those of you interested in attending this event, stay tuned Atlanta 2015. Plan to attend the August 6-9, 2015 OMSA as I will pass on more information about this international convention in Atlanta, Georgia. We will be at the Crowne conference for medal collectors as I receive it. Plaza Rivinia. Our Treasurer, Tim Bartholow, is the man on-the-ground for this convention; he will be assisted by Please do not hesitate to contact me by email (or phone) Director Nathan Weiss. if you have any questions or concerns. Purple Hearts for Fort Hood Shooting Victims. PLEASE NOTE: For those of you who have been following the issue of whether the soldiers killed and wounded by Army Effective February 1, 2015 the postal Major Nidal Hasan should be awarded the Purple Heart, address of the Editor changed to the question has been decided by Congress. The latest PO Box 6122, Chico, CA 95927-6122 National Defense Authorization Act, which President 2 JOMSA MEET THE AUTHORS Robert Baird was born in El Paso, Texas and now lives McDowell is a retired Air Force officer with a combined in Prescott, Arizona with wife Marlene and their dog active duty and reserve service of 29 years. He had es- “Friday.” Bob started out in 1957 enlisting in the USAF sentially two civilian careers. He was a teacher for ten and did four years in the Auto Track Radar field, includ- years and then entered Federal civil service. He retired ing a year in Korea from 1958 to 1959. He was a FAA from the government in 2011 and moved to his country Air Traffic Controller for three years and after finishing home in central Virginia, where he edited the Planchet commercial pilot/instrument training he was hired by newsletter (the successor to Al Gleim’s new Medal Flying Tiger Lines in 1965. Bob left Tigers with a direct newsletter). McDowell’s collecting interest is focused appointment as Warrant Officer 1, USAR, and went to on United States medals, with particular emphasis on helicopter school. After a year in Vietnam with the 1st civilian medals of the federal government. Cavalry flying armed helicopters, he then served as an instructor. After retirement as a as a CW4, Master Army Owain Raw Rees, MA (Oxon), is currently the manager Aviator, he rejoined the Flying Tiger Line and flew the of the AXA Insurance office in Riyadh. Owain was born in DC-8-63 as Flight Officer and Captain, and later the 747 1959 in Aberystwyth, Wales, educated at Christ College, as Captain. He has over 25,000 hours in civil aircraft and Brecon and read theology at Worcester College, Oxford. several thousand in military aircraft. An author of articles He was subsequently commissioned into the Royal Welch in several official military magazines, Bob has been col- Fusiliers. Since leaving the British Army he has pursued lecting medals and other stuff for about 40 years. He has a career in insurance and has lived in the Middle East always enjoyed the folks he has met through the Society. since 1989. In his spare time he pursues his interest in the awards of the Arab world. He is a regular contributor to Fred L. Borch is the President of OMSA. Journal of the Orders and Medals Research Society and JOMSA and has been awarded seven Literary Medals. Russell Furtado earned a BA degree in history, ge- Through long involvement with the Association of Round ography and education in 1972 and in 1981 he earned Tables Arabian Gulf he has been made an Honorary Life a masters degree in history and school administration. Member of the Association. Russ spent 29 years as a civilian educator and 34 years in the military. His awards are the Legion of Merit, two Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Medals, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, and the Distin- The biographies of authors that appear on this guished Order of Saint Martin. On January 30, 2010 he page are submitted by each author at the request was made a Knight of the Order of St. Michael of the of the editor who edits them for conformity with Wing by the Duke of Braganca of Portugal. the format of the Journal. Gavin Goh was born in Singapore before moving to Australia. He has masters degrees in law from the WOULD YOU LIKE University of Sydney and international relations from Deakin University. He also attended the University of TO SEE YOUR Western Australia where he graduated with bachelor degrees in law and commerce. Gavin spent time in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade BIOGRAPHY ON before moving to industry and education. He is the author of The Order of the Double Dragon: Imperial China’s THIS PAGE? Highest Western Style Honour, with a foreward by fellow member Richard LaTondre. SUBMIT AN Charles P. McDowell has been a member of OMSA for over 40 years and has served as its Librarian, a member ARTICLE TO THE of the Board of Directors, Vice-President, and President. He has attended most of the conventions during the last 25 years and has been a frequent contributor to the Journal. JOMSA EDITOR Vol. 66, No. 2 (March-April 2015) 3 THE FIRST-TYPE ARMY DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS: THE “BACK STORY” Charles P. McDowell It is relatively easy to build on the foundation of something 1848). Unlike the Medal of Honor, the Certificate of Merit that already exists, but starting something new is a lot more could only be awarded to enlisted personnel and could be difficult. That was the case with the Army’s Distinguished awarded for both heroism in battle and for “distinguished Service Cross. Prior to its establishment, the Army had service other than in action.” its Medal of Honor (established in 1862) and Certificate of Merit medal (established in 1905), but these had their Major General Leonard Wood (1860-1927): Major own convoluted histories and background. They were also General Leonard Wood had a unique background.