"And when I finally closed my eyes

And I accepted my fate, I thought:

’I can die now, The victory is ours!’

And then when I woke up again,

From the bitter pain,

Here on my wounds I found attached

The Military Virtue!"

VIRTUTEA MILITARA CROSS

Awardees were also entitled to receive certain

commemorative medals upon their issue, such as the

Carol I Centennial Medal and the Peles Castle Medal.

The obverse (Figure 9) is 38ram in diameter and consists

of a cross, placed on a wreath of oak leaves with the

cross converging on a round medallion. The middle of

the cross has a Carol I bust facing to the left and the

circular inscription, CAROL I DOMN AL ROMANIEI.

The reverse had the words ¥IRTUTE over MILITARA.

The regulation attached to the original Decree stated that

the inscription should be CAROL I REGE AL

ROMANIEI (Figure 10). Only a small number of awards

minted in 1880 adhered to this regulation. The Virtutea

Militara Cross minted after 1880 contains the inscription

to Carol I as DOMN rather than REGE. The ribbon is

red moire, 30-38mm wide, with 5mm wide light blue

edges.

Figure 9: Obverse (left) and reverse (right) of the

Virtutea Militara Cross.

On November 25, 1880, by Royal Decree No. 2698,

Prince Carol I separated the military bravery medal from

the medal of military virtue by a new medal designated

as a military bravery medal. This medal was the highest

bravery award for non-commissioned officers equal to

the "Michael the Brave" order for military officers. The

ribbon of the medal was also attached to Orders of the

Crown and Star when awarded for bravery.

By Royal Decree 1304 in 1933 and Royal Decree 1045

in 1936, holders of this cross received the following

benefits:

(a) free travel by train and boat,

(b) 500 square meter grant of land in their

home community,

(c) 200,000 lei in state bonds, (d) children of holders did not pay school

taxes, and (e) upon death of the holder, the widow

received the same benefits.

Figure 10: Obverse (left) and reverse (right) of the Virtutea Militara Cross with the inscription

Carol I Rege Al Romaniei.

The first class is in silver-grit and later bronze-gilt and

the second class is in silver and later silvered bronze. A

variant exists consisting of arms of the cross being

straight and the wreath being contiguous with the center

medallion (Figure 11). The only hallmarks that have been

observed are on the Devotamentu Si Curagiu. Fakes of

the Virtutea Militara, Virtutea Militara Cross and Pro

Virtute Militari have been observed.

These Royal Romanian awards became obsolete in 1947

Vol. 57, No. 3 17

with the formation of the Romanian People’s Republic. Holders of the award were .allowed to exchange their Virtutea Militara Cross for~the Communist counterpart Virtutea Ostaseasca (Medal of Soldier’s Virtue).

Figure 11: Obverse (left) and reverse (right) of the Virtutea Militara Cross variant with straight arm edges.

Figure 12: Obverse (left) and reverse (right) of the

current Virtutea Militara Cross.

The current Romanian government has reestablished the Military Virtue medal by Decree No. 459/2002, published on July 31, 2002, together with the order of the same name. (Figure. 12). The peace version of the medal is round with three classes, while the war version has the

layout of the old Military Virtue Cross and with only two classes. The first class of the peace version provides for a maximum issue of 5,000 military holders and 2,000 civilian holders, while the other classes are unlimited in number of issuance. The war version is the highest award for soldiers and non-commissioned officers, equal to the Michael the Brave order for officers, much like the old Military Virtue Cross. Currently, only the third class of the medal has been awarded; one to a Dutch citizen and 845 to Romanian citizens.

Bibliography

Kellogg, Frederick, The Road to Romanian Independence. Purdue

University Press, 1995.

Klietmann, Dr. Kurt-Gerhard.Phaleristik Rumanien. Berlin, 1975.

Safta, Jipa, Velter, and Marinescu. Decoratii Romanesti De Razboi

(1860-1947). Bucharest, 1993.

Stefan, Neculae, and Dumitrascu. Romania Decoratii (1859-1991).

Bucharest, 1992.

Scafes, C, H. Serbanescu, C. Andone, I. Scafes. Armata Romana in

Vremea Lui Alexandru loan Cuza. Bucharest, 2003.

Scafes, H. Serbanescu, C. Andone, I. Scafes. Armata Romana in

Razboiul de Independenta 1877-1878. Bucharest, 2002.

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The Sinking of the SS Jean Nicolet: The Story of a Mariner’s Medal

and Purple Heart

Jeffrey B. Floyd

It was just after midnight on July 2, 1944. The Liberty

ship Jean Nicolet was bound from San Pedro, California,

for Colombo, Ceylon, via Fremantle, Australia, with a

dry cargo of military supplies and equipment. Otherwise

an unremarkable ship, Jean Nicolet was about to be the

centerpiece of a remarkable and horrific story.

The ship, under the command of Captain David M.

Nilsson, had been built in October 1943 and was operated

by the Oliver J. Olson Company, of San Francisco, for

the War Shipping Administration. The Jean Nicolet

carried 41 merchant crewmen, 28 Naval Armed Guard,

30 passengers and one United States Army medical

corpsman. The passengers consisted of six Army officers,

12 Army enlisted men, eight Navy technicians and four

civilians. They were bound for assignments in India.

operator, broadcast a distress call with the ship’s location, which was received and answered by stations in Ceylon and India. The ship began taking on water and listing 30 degrees to starboard. Fearing she would capsize, Captain Nilsson ordered the 100 crewmen and passengers to board four lifeboats and two rafts. The only casualty was 2nd Lieutenant Morrison R. Miller, who broke his arm. About 45 minutes after the Jean Nicolet was abandoned, the submarine surfaced and began to shell the ship with its deck gun.

Once the ship was afire, the Japanese captain, Commander Ariizume Tatsunosuke, began to pick up the survivors and hold them on the afterdeck of the I-8. He then gave orders to sink the lifeboats and rafts. Captain Nilsson, Gus Tilden, the radio operator, and Francis J. O’Gara, a civilian employee of the War Shipping Administration, were taken below. Seeing their shipmates being taken aboard the Japanese submarine, five men from one raft jumped into water to attempt an escape.

Figure 1: Obverse of the Mariner’s Medal

awarded to Oswald S. Wright.

Steaming unescorted about 700 miles south of Ceylon, at seven minutes after Midnight, the Jean Nicolet was suddenly hit by two torpedoes fired by the Japanese submarine, I-8. Augustus Tilden, the ship’s radio

Figure 2: Reverse of the Mariner’s Medal

awarded to Oswald S. Wright.

Once aboard the submarine, the ordeal of the crew quickly turned murderous. The first man aboard, William M. Musser, a 17-year-old messman from Pennsylvania, was shot and his body dumped overboard. Each man was stripped of his life jacket, searched and had his hands tied behind him with rope or wire. The Americans were

Vol. 57, No. 3 19