Laos, Kingdom. A Medal Of Civilian Merit And Police Service Medal

First Medal is tentatively identified as a Medal of Civilian Merit: in chromed metal, measuring 33.7 mm (w) x 70.7 mm (h), original ribbon. Second Medal is tentatively identified as a Police Service Medal: two-piece construction, in silvered bronze with red enamels, measuring 31.2 mm (w) x 67.3 mm (h), original ribbon, chipping evident in the red enamels on the star. Contact marks, better than very fine.

Footnote: These two similar medals are mysteries. In 1983 the American Charge in Laos, on request, showed a photo of these to former Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma, a former general in the Royal Lao Army, and the current person responsible for awards in the Presidence du Conseil, but none could recognize them. The Department of the Army Historical Division, on request, contacted two senior Laotian general officers who also could not identify them. Other American advisers to the Royal Lao Army also did not see them in use. They were thus not part of the regular Royal Lao system of awards. Some of these medals appear from sewing on the ribbon to have actually been worn. The best guess is that these were awarded by some authority during the strange period of the Coalition Government of 1957, when the Royal Army and Pathet Lao forces came closest to integration, or perhaps during the last period of the Provisional Government of National Unity. They may have been intended to indicate which side of the civil war the recipient had served and would be a way the new government could recognize both sides equally – the medal with the Royal Army trident and Chaka symbol for the Royal Lao Army soldiers, and the medal with the red star for Pathet Lao soldiers. The ribbon’s resemblance to the ribbon of the Medal for Military Valor may also indicate they were intended as awards for valour in the combined army. These medals have appeared on the market under various names like the Police Service Medal, Medal of Civilian Merit, Military Medal, Gendarmerie Medal, etc; but these descriptions have no basis and appear invented just to facilitate their sale.