LS11 UNKNOWN
  non identifié
one class – established ???
  For: ???
  Design: silver breast badge, 30mm across, with suspension ribbon
    Obverse: Royal Lao Army device of trident and a Chaka fighting discus with the center excized, with the hilts of two swords protruding below and the curved tips of the blades protruding above, and at the top a Royal crown with a small unalom symbol below;
    Reverse: plain
  Ribbon: 34mm; red 10.3mm, white 2.9mm, red 2.4mm, white 2.9mm, red 2.4mm, white 2.9mm, red 10.3mm

Some examples appear to have a more frosted appearance to the silver.

This medal is relatively common, most examples appearing to come from some long held cache of them.

 

LS12 UNKNOWN
  non identifié
one class – established ???
  For: ???
  Design: silver breast badge, 31mm across, with suspension ribbon
    Obverse: a Chaka fighting discus crossed by two swords, surmounted by large red star, and at the top a Royal crown with a small unalom symbol below;
    Reverse: plain
  Ribbon: 35mm; green 10.9mm, red 2.5mm, green 2.7mm, red 2.7mm, green 2.7mm, red 2.5mm, green 10.9mm

This medal is somewhat less common than the previous medal.

Unknown 11
11		 Unknown 12
12

Unknown 11 Detail
11 detail		 Unknown 12 Detail
12 detail

These two similar medals are mysteries. In 1983 the American Charge in Laos, on request, showed a photo of these to former Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma, a former general in the Royal Lao Army, and the current person responsible for awards in the Presidence du Conseil, but none could recognize them. The Department of the Army Historical Division, on request, contacted two senior Laotian general officers who also could not identify them. Other US advisors to the Royal Lao Army also did not see them in use. They were thus not part of the regular Royal Lao system of awards. Some of these medals appear from sewing on the ribbon to have actually been worn.

The best guess is that these were awarded by some authority during the strange period of the Coalition Government of 1957, when the Royal Army and Pathet Lao forces came closest to integration, or perhaps during the last period of the Provisional Government of National Unity.

They may have been intended to indicate which side of the civil war the recipient had served and would be a way the new government could recognize both sides equally – the medal with the Royal Army trident and Chaka symbol for the Royal Lao Army soldiers, and the medal with the red star for Pathet Lao soldiers. The ribbon’s resemblance to the ribbon of the Medal for Military Valor may also indicate they were intended as awards for valor in the combined army.

These medals have appeared on the market under various names like the Police Service Medal, Medal of Civilian Merit, Military Medal, Gendarmerie Medal, etc; but these descriptions have no basis and appear invented just to facilitate their sale.