Medals Earned by Glider Pilots, Orange Lanyard

The Orange Lanyard of the Royal Netherlands Army. This is the highest award for valor awarded by the Netherlands Government during WWII. It is the Militaire Willems Orde Degree of Knight of the Fourth Class. Due to an oversight by the Airborne and the Army Air Corps, it took 38 years and the efforts of the WWII Glider Pilot Association to correct the error. It was presented at the National Reunion in Reno, Nevada in 1982, by the Netherlands Military Attache on behalf or her Majesty, the Queen of the Netherlands.

George Theis, Treasurer of the National WWII Glider Pilot Association, recently sent me this award given by the Government of Holland, because he knows I want every fact documented about my uncle's participation in the war and what his sacrifice meant to other. The lanyard came with a card attached:

The Orange Lanyard is presented to the Glider Pilots of the IX Army Air Force Troop Carrier Command in recognition of their participation in the airborne operations and subsequent combat actions of Operation Market Garden.