COLONEL GATHAFI WEARING THE TWO ORDERS

The central medallion of white enamel bears the state symbol of the Libyan

Arab Republic in its first form (an Arab hawk bearing the red, white, black, Libyan shield on his breast with a motto scroll clutched in his talons.) The ribbon for the Order of courage is light red and passes through an ornamental

gold suspension device only slightly different from that of the Order of the

Republic.

One last note, a few references to an Order of al Jihad occur linking

it to the present awards structure; perhaps these reference mention the Order of Courage as that generally ~is the context.

SOCIETIES OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WARI PHILIPPINES INSURRECTION AND BOXER REBELLION

Harvey S. Eisenberg~ OMSA #1552

(all rights reserved)

PART II (concluded from the November issue THE MEDAL COLLECTOR)

THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ORDER SONS OF GUNBOATS (Additional Information)

During the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection (1898- 1902) a number of gunboats, many of them captured from the Spaniards, were used by the Navy in operations against the Filipinos. These gunboats were manned by about 35 petty officers and men, and were officered by one or two midshipmen and a captain who was usually a lieutenant or lieutenant Junior grade. From these "captains" there sprang up an organization whimsically c called THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ORDER SONS OF GUNBOATS, which was after- wards given seml-offlclal recognition and commemorated in a bronze medal designed by the noted marine artist HENRY REUTERDA~L.

The Sons of Gunboats required for membership a service in actual war of at least 6 months. Only 50 officers were eligible.

The following gunboats served during the qualifying period:

USS ALBAY USS GUARDOQUI USS MARIVELES USS QUIROS

USS BASCO USS LEYTE USS PAMPAGNA USS SAMAR

USS CALLAO USS MANELNO USS PANAY USS VILLALOBOS

USS CALAMIANES USS MINDORO USS PARAGUA USS URDANE~A

(Editor’s note: An article THE MEDALS OF THE PANAY INCIDENT by Frank M.

Racine, appeared in THE MEDAL COLLECTOR, October, 1965 Vol. 16 No. I0.

pp 26-27. A useful book entitled YANGTZE PATROL (The U.S. Navy in China)

by Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley, U.S. Navy (Retd)- Naval Institute Press -

Annapolis 1971 is also useful in information on U.S. gunboats.)

MILITARY ORDER OF ~{E CARABAO "If it had not been for the Boxer Rebellion, it is quite possible

that the 5[ilitary Order of the Carabao, a society of Philippine service, might not have been formed. By the winter of 1900-1901, most of the American forces that had narticioated in the Chineese Relief Expedition sailed back to the Philippines from whence they had come. ~aturally enough, members of regiments that had remained in the Islands, fighting the Insurrectos, bogged do~ in mud, in tropica! rains, and with insect nests all around them, eating hard- tack and the canned beef of those days, did not take kindly to the accounts of high life with which they were regaled by the per- sonnel of the now disbanded China Relief Exoedition. Selection of particular units from the Philiooines to~o to China to fight the Boxers had been, after all, ma~er of purest happenstance.

"And what perhaps annoyed most of those who had spent all of 1900 in the Islands were the airs disolayed by the members of the Order of the Dragon, with their ornate~insignia so proudly worn. That feeling exploded into action at a dinner held at the Army and Navy Club in kanila in the Fall of 1900.

"One officer made some distinctly uncomplimentary remarks about the Dragon; another said: "Why don’t you organize a Carabao society here and run them out of business?" At any rate, those present determined to enter a protest in the form of a parody. Their weapons were ridicule and derision. The jungleers would spoof the effete luxury of the golden dragon. The emblem of their new organization would be, not the resplendent dragon of Imperial China, but the lowly carabao, the Philippine water buffalo--an animal weighing only 900 peunds as against the massive Thai buffalo which averages upwards of 2000--the carabao, the ubiquitious beast of burden which spends all of its restin~ hours deed in sticky, Slimy, smelly mud. - "

"The carabao was the most lowly, most humble, most despised, meanest, most useful, and ultimately the most loved animal the American forces:knew. It was the abused and inevitable drudge of the Islands. The carabao is a beast of cow-like demeanor and docility--so long as it stays wet. But deprive the animal of its right to unlimited water, deprive it of time to wallow in the muddy shallows--in short, keep it dry and thirsty--and it becomes a very different, a very formidible, and indeed a distinbtly dangerous beast.

"These characteristics made the carabao a priceless symbol for a derisive organization to, be co,~posed of men who likewise were far from docile when deprived of the liquids essential to happy relaxation. Thus was conceived and born the ~,;ilitary Order of the Carabao; thus were its convivial gatherings forever to be kno~m as Wallows~’ *

*From "TVE CARABAO’S FIRST SEVENTY YEARS 1900-1970" by Colonel Frederick Bernays Weiner, ;{istorian of the Order, with permission of the Society.