Saint Martin, whose name comes from Marten Tenens (one who sustains Mars), was born in Hungary during the reign of Emperor Constantine, and spent his early childhood in northern Italy. The Roman Army had a law that required sons of veterans to serve in the military. He was assigned to a ceremonial cavalry unit that protected the emperor and rarely saw combat. Like his father, he became an officer and eventually was assigned to garrison duty in Gaul (present-day France).

It was on this garrison duty at Amiens that the event took place that has been portrayed in art throughout the ages. On a bitterly cold winter day, the young tribune Martin rode through the gates, probably dressed in the regalia of his unit -- gleaming, flexible armor, ridged helmet, and a beautiful white cloak whose upper section was lined with lambs wool. As he approached the gates he saw a beggar, with clothes so ragged that he was practically naked. The beggar must have been shaking and blue from the cold but no one reached out to help him. Martin, overcome with compassion, took off his mantle. In one quick stroke he slashed the lovely mantle in two with his sword, handed half to the freezing man and wrapped the remainder on his own shoulders.

Saint Martin--the Patron Saint of the Quartermaster Regiment--was the most popular saint in France during the great antiquity and the early Middle Ages. It is said that French kings carried his cloak into battle as a spur to victory. Usually pictured on horseback dividing his cloak with the beggar, the image of Saint Martin as a Soldier-Provider offers a fitting symbol for Logistics Warriors charged with SUPPORTING VICTORY now and for all time.

Catharine Littlefield Greene
Association of Quartermasters

The Catharine Greene award was approved by the Quartermaster General in January 2001 to provide an award that would recognize significant contributions and support provided by Quartermaster spouses.   Any member of the Quartermaster corps may nominate a deserving candidate for the Catharine Greene Award.  Although any member of the Quartermaster Corps may nominate a spouse, the nominating of your own spouse is highly discouraged and approving officials should carefully screen such nomination requests.

Catharine Greene, the wife of Major General Nathaniel Greene, (the third Quartermaster General), was a quiet heroine of the American Revolutionary War. Not content to sit on the sidelines while history was being made, Catharine Greene made every attempt to join her husband at various camps throughout the war. She was present at the winter camp of the Continental Army after the battle of Bunker Hill while pregnant with the Greene’s first child. She felt the ground shake as a British shell exploded outside her cabin as she held her baby. She suffered the hardships of the Army at Valley Forge in 1778 and served as a makeshift translator among the French and American Officers. So profound was her impact on morale that General George Washington personally invited her to the Army’s encampment the next winter. At times she voluntarily turned her home into a temporary hospital where she helped care for the sick and wounded and a headquarters while her husband was the Quartermaster General. She performed that most difficult of duties by visiting the next of kin when soldiers were killed. As if the challenges of war were not enough, during this same period Catharine Greene also had five children.

Catharine Greene was a courageous, devoted mother and spouse, who gracefully endured the war’s many hardships. During that most trying time in our nation’s history she gave untiring support to her husband, the Quartermaster Corps, and the Continental Army as we fought to establish freedom and our nation’s independence.