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In 1976, in response to the families of WWII veterans who
wanted to know what medals their fathers had been awarded,
Army wife Linda Foster founded Medals of America. It was
a suitcase operation, ideally suited to her peripatetic life.
But the business grew 15-20 percent a year.
"People would ask, ‘Where have you been?’” she
said. “There just wasn’t anyone else doing it.”
When
he retired in 1990, Frank Foster joined his wife in the business.
It was an easy fit: He had supervised awards and decorations
in the Army. The reference material on medals was so scant
that he wrote his own book—one that has
been through several printings and revisions, and is now
the standard reference.
Medals of America has a handsome plant
just outside Greenville, South Carolina, and has several
dozen people on the payroll. The assembly of the medals,
ribbons, and display boxes is done entirely by hand. It’s
careful, exacting work requiring enormous patience and precision.
A separate staff mans the telephones, taking orders. “It
only made sense to hire veterans at the call center,” Foster
said. “They’re the ones who know about and care
about the medals the most.”
Although they carry and
sell caps and t-shirts and pins and collectibles, it’s
clearly their work with medals that the staff prides itself
on. The display boxes are the heart and soul of what they
do.
Medals of America is there to help
veterans and their families. “When
people call us,” Frank Foster said, “they want
everything they are entitled to, but nothing else.”
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©2006-
2011, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8719 Colesville Road, Suite 100, Silver Spring, MD 20910