Talk:William Wiswesser

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the science and academia work group.

Chemistry Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Chemistry, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of chemistry on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ChemistryWikipedia:WikiProject ChemistryTemplate:WikiProject ChemistryChemistry articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Highest civilian award from US Army Dept?

According to this obit, Wiswesser was awarded the (USA) Department of the Army Award of Merit (and the only Award of Merit in the encyclopedia is a British gardening award); according to this, it was "the highest honorary citation the United States Secretary of the Army can grant to a civilian", and "the Department of the Army decoration". Here it's "U.S. Army Exceptional Service Award", but Exceptional Service Award is an air cadet award. Any ideas? I've asked at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject United States and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Awards and prizes. PamD 18:19, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I've now found Department_of_the_Army_Civilian_Awards#Honorary_Awards which might help, but I haven't a clue which of these is what he was awarded in 1970. Any ideas? PamD 18:24, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Could be Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service, but has anyone got access to a record of who was awarded that in 1970? PamD 18:44, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Are there other corroborating sources that might shed light on this award? It could be a defunct award that is no longer awarded by Department of Army. Also ask at WP:MILHIST, they might know.--RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 20:46, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Even if defunct I'd expect to find some mention of it in the encyclopedia - or external sources. Have asked at WP:MILHIST: thanks for the suggestion. PamD 22:16, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I Came here from the notification on WP:MILHIST. You can narrow it down by finding out who his employer was at the time. If he was not employed by the Federal Government, the highest civilian award from the Secretary of the Army would be the Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service, as PamD pointed out, which sounds like what you are describing, however the grainy picture in the linked newspaper article doesn't look right (the ribbon is mostly white and the one in the picture is dark). If instead he was employed by the Department of the Army, the highest civilian award would be the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service which seems to possibly match the picture and the title match's the description in the newspaper article (both in the article and most tellingly, the quote in the picture caption). It looks like the DfECS is the one. Hope that helps, Gecko G (talk) 22:52, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Department of the Army Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service is likely the award that you are looking for. EricSerge (talk) 23:21, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I dropped an answer at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history.--Jim in Georgia Contribs Talk 23:28, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]