On 11/20/2003,
Herman Vaalburg sent an e-mail and stated: It was a pleasure for me to provide you with the additional info. My source for the 'Militaire Willems Orde' is a book in the Dutch language which contains all recipients of this award for WW2 and beyond (Dutch East Indies and Korea). It contains around 200 names and pictures of the individuals containing a brief description of the man (or woman - 2 awards were to women) his military career and a the text of the official citation. All 'MWO's' as we call them, for the foreign recipients (around 35 in total from the USA, UK, Canada) are without a picture or a description of his military background, so I started to find this info somewhere else. The story of the 82nd and the 101st are widely publicised here in the Netherlands. We even have some museums covering the subject. The museum for the 82nd is in Groesbeek. I visited this a couple of times and it is really nice and covers more that just September '44. If you desire I can provide you with a name list for all 82nd AB recipients for the Bronzen Leeuw (Lion) and Bronzen Kruis (Cross). Again in Dutch there is a nice book for composed by a Dutch medal collector. At this moment he is working at a book for the Kruis van Verdienste (Cross of Gallantry) but that is not finished yet. The last Dutch bravery award for combat is called the 'Vliegerskruis' or Flyerscross (equivalent of your DFC), but obviously that does not contain any personnel of the 82nd and the 101st AB division. Why do I have an interest in this? Well, my father is a military history buff and as a young boy he infected me with the virus. Of course he is also interested in the old stuff like the Romans, but my interest starts around the 30-ties. When I joined the Dutch Army, my interest focused to the military history of the Netherlands. Old Warrant officers and officers then were Korea-vets. Then, as a soldier, you were obliged to salute all wearers of the MWO irrespective of which rank they had, so my interest focused to these guys. I bought a book or 2 and before you know it a fascinating story develops before your eyes. The MWO was instituted in 1815 and was first awarded to soldiers fighting Napoleon at Waterloo. It is the equivalent of your Medal of Honor, only this award can only be awarded by our King or Queen, with approval of the Minister of Defence which is just a formality. In total there are around 3.800 awarded. From 1840 to 1900 it was also awarded for less dignifying criteria due to a lack of proper medals available at that time. The Bronze Lion was instituted in 1944 and the Bronze Cross in 1941. The Bronze Lion substituted the 'Bronze Cross with mention in despatches' This was awarded from 1941 to 1944 to some individuals. The mention in despatches was noted by the Kings Crown on the ribbon of the medal.
At this moment I am still in the reserves of the Dutch Army (Major in the Infantry) and once a year I still meet some veterans at a formal dinner of my regiment. Those guys really can tell fascinating war stories. I even met a MWO wearer once. He won his one in the Dutch East Indies, fought later in Korea in 1951, was awarded a US- Bronze Star medal and survived all this. One of the vet-generals called MG Tack even has a Silver Star medal I believe. He briefly commanded the Dutch Battalion in Korea when the commander (LTC den Ouden) was KIA in Feb. '51.
Well, when you type things you are really interested in the story grows and grows, so this became quite a large email. In real life I do not talk so lengthy, so don't worry. If you want some additional info about Dutch bravery medals to the 82nd just let me know, but as I saw briefly your name list on the site for the 508th is quite lengthy and looks OK to me.
Greetings from the Netherlands
Herman Vaalburg
-----Original Message-----
From: Dick O'Donnell [mailto:jumpmaster.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 12:47 AM
To: Vaalburg, Herman
Subject: Re: 508th P.I.R. Website
Herman:
Thank you so much for correcting my errors and for providing the photos of the four medals as well as the history of the awards as they apply to the 82nd AB.
May I ask what your source of information is for the individuals who received those awards?
I shall try to post this information to the site quickly.
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