Canadian Medal of  

          Honor.com

  • Sunday evening's blogs
  • graves, memorials and medals
  • About the Author
  • contact the Author
  • Home
latest blog

MAX FLEX...

8/19/2020

0 Comments

 
Like most jobs, my almost two decades with the military started at the bottom of the rung. For just over the first decade as a Private, them Corporal, and then Sergeant I and my fellow service members were taught, and re-taught,  and practiced in what in those days was called "MAX FLEX,"  an acronym  for Maximum Flexibility.

Max Flex teaches you that most plans often have parts that seem to always go wrong. When they occur, you should have backup plans to go another route to get the job done.

A scenario helps to explain this. As a Cpl and at the time a section commander in the infantry, (which these days is now commanded by a Sergeant,) you are given the task to advance and make contact. You expect the enemy to be in position X. They are on the move and should arrive at such and such a time, and will get settled in waiting for you to attack.

But en-route information comes your way and you plan to use this to your benefit. You decide, using Max Flex, to catch them on the move... an easier target. You decide to circle around and sneak up at their backs and then start the battle which would give you an advantage. Doing the circling, you camouflage your position and allow them to pass.. and then start the battle BEFORE they have time to dig in and prepare for battle. The outcome now is hopefully a much better scenario  in your favour.

Because you used Max Flex!


Now that I have trained you on Max Flex, and before you head off to war, I must tell you that my plan for today's blog, now several days late, has to be put on hold. This is so that I can bring you the first of three recent news items that I think you would will find most interesting and would like to hear about.

So, using max flex,  that's what I will bring you now. On Sunday next, I will bring you probably the 2nd and third of these updates and the following week I will return to the story originally planned for today.

So here we go with story number 1...

In early August, news releases reminded us that Purple Heart (PH) Day was coming up on August 7th.  It was on that date back 238 years ago that General George Washington signed the order that created what he called the... "Badge of Military Merit.

This badge took the form of a purple piece of clothe, hand stitched and containing the word MERIT. The clothe was purple in colour.  It was only awarded to three, and some now say 6 soldiers. But I believe a handful of others, including one soldier from Montreal may have also been so awarded. The Montreal soldier's documentation seems to suggest that he too, was a Badge of Military Merit recipient.

The Washington order had three provisions. The first two dealt with what the famous General called "service strips" of clothe to be worn on the sleeve for varying lengths of service. Today these service strips have become known as service stripes and are very much still in use, and have been since the days of Washington. But the Badge of Military Merit fell out of use after the Revolutionary War.

So we can see that out of the three badges, two have been in use continuously and the third disappeared.

Yet most articles mentioning the Purple Heart say it is the oldest medal in continuous use. Truth be told it was the junior of the three in the Washington order and was the only one that in fact was NO LONGER IN USE, and remained so until  WWll, when recreated as the Purple Heart and backdated to some actions in WWl.

There are at least 3 stories of being the first to get the Purple Heart when created by an Order in 1942. The first being General MacArthur whose efforts after others earlier tried, were more successful in getting the medal created.  

He claimed, and was/is supported in most stories on the subject, to be the first to  get the Medal. This in fact is not the whole story.

Whilst probably the first to be so presented with the medal, it was the second in line, by date of action. And that recipient was a nurse, a woman nurse who lost and eye when the German's bombed the hospital she was working in back in WW1. Her medal predated MacArthur's, and her story has been featured here a number of times in this space. She was not even American, but Canadian and from PEI.

Use the search engine in upper right to pull up numerous mentions of her work. Search for her by name... Beatrice MacDonald.

I believe MacArthur got a Purple Heart for actions also in the Philippines. But again this was after the MacDonald action.

Picture
Here we see the current Purple Heart at the right and two of the three original Badges of Military Merit. A close look at them clearly shows that they were hand stitched and possibly by 2 different individuals.

A 3rd claim of being the first has found a home on the internet. It has the story about a female nurse by the name of Major Annie Fox being the first recipient. Her actions occurred  during the bombing of Pearl Harbour in October 1942.

Beatrice MacDonald's actions happened on 4 Jan., 1936. more than 6 1/2 years earlier.

See you with the 2nd story on Sunday next.

Bart

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author;
    Bart Armstrong, C.D.,
    Recipient, Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers 

    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly