President's Certificate of Merit

The President's Certificate of Merit was created June 6, 1946 by Executive Order 9734 signed by US President Harry Truman, "for award by the President or at his direction to any civilian who on or after December 7, 1941 (see Attack on Pearl Harbor), has performed a meritorious act or service which has aided the United States or any nation engaged with the United States in the prosecution of World War II, and for which there is no other suitable award or recognition."[1]

The award was for an act or service that was of high degree, but not sufficiently extraordinary or meritorious enough to warrant the Medal for Merit. The Certificate of Merit is generally awarded at the recommendation of the Medal for Merit Board, and its design must be approved by the Board. No person can receive more than one award, and the certificates may be awarded posthumously.

In 1948, 324 Certificates were awarded, including 67 for people who served in various capacities in connection with production of aircraft or aircraft components, or in connection with air carrier operations under contract to the Army Air Forces or the Air Transport Command. The remaining 257 served in some capacity with or for the Office of Scientific Research and Development.

Notable recipients
gollark: - It's important to me that women aren't forced to have children they don't want or may not be able to take care of.- which is why I support mandatory sterilization for all - children would be grown in vats and raised by the government instead.
gollark: - I support the right to privacy!- In light of governments' large-scale mass surveillance campaigns which they do not seem inclined to stop, I would support an open and transparent volunteer spying agency using open source software and hardware to gather and process data in order to act as a competitor.
gollark: These are hard...
gollark: - which is why I think all government workers should be randomly selected, similarly to jury duty
gollark: - which is why I think anyone in government who makes a mistake of any kind should be immediately fired

References
  1. "Harry S. Truman, Executive Order 9734 - President's Certificate of Merit". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved May 14, 2011.
  2. "W.C. Pierce Faculty Lecturer". University Bulletin: A Weekly Bulletin for the Staff of the University of California. University of California. 7 (23): 104. 26 January 1959. Retrieved 7 November 2014.

Further reading
  • March 31, 1948 Medal for Merit Board memo from Richmond B. Keech to President Harry Truman.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.