[Doug Stankey]

The subject of dates of awards or of assignment to a position is a recurring one, and so I will have to repeat the salient points again. The dates for award quoted might be the date of approval or the date of official bestowal or the date of actually physically receiving the award. This is due to the severe time lag in the administration. Similarly, the unit associated with an award is that when the fellow was recommended for the award and so the date can be off by months, even half a year! There is similar confusion about dates of assignment. Is it the date of the order, the date of actually arriving or the date of actually assuming command? The issue of acting commanders contributes to the confusion as these are noted less often.

Yes, citing specific dates is risky but as a rule our records have shown time and again that they are generally consistent as they are based mainly on microfilms of original documents and have not ungone "interpretation" by some author. We will use published material but are careful to try to screen out inconsistencies.

The theorey that Maue was acting Staka from summer 42 to his death in 01.43 may have some truth to it as Fitzner was noted as the Stafü, i.e. not sufficiently experienced to be a Staka. It appears that the issue of just how Maue fits in there requires more evidence.

DGS