DAVE SCHWIND

The Research

Fifteen years ago, I was sitting in a computer room on the USS Gary (FFG-51) in Yokosuka, Japan, browsing eBay when I came across an auction for a Soviet medal with a small, yellowed piece of paper attached to the lid that had the name of a US Navy Chief Petty Officer. Thirty-three dollars later, it was mine. At the time, no one I knew had any information about what I had just purchased. In fact, many people thought it was fake. "Why would the Soviets give a medal to a United States Navy Chief?" they would ask.

The medal sat forgotten on a shelf in my office for several years until I found the collector who had the documents that came with the medal. At that point, putting them together, I knew it wasn't fake and I knew there was a story behind the medal. But no one knew anything about these...so it became my job to do the research. In 2007, I the article "Soviet Military Decorations to Americans during World War II" was published in the Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America. This ground-breaking research earned me their Literary Medal for the year and raised people's curiosity about these little-known awards. Being done with the article, I thought my contribution to their history was complete. I was wrong.

In 2011, digging through my garage, I discovered my old research from the article. Out of curiosity, I decided to see if there was any more information available about the recipients as the volume of information available digitally has increased over a thousand-fold since starting my original research. First, I found enough for another article, just about Soviet medals to the US Navy. Then, with a bit more digging, information came flowing in. I had enough for a book, and the heroism of these brave men warranted one. And with that, Blue Seas, Red Stars was born.