Colonel Goddard is credited with founding the science of Firearms Identification and first applying it to help police solve the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre in which seven gangsters were killed by rival Al Capone mobsters dressed as Chicago police officers.

That case led to the establishment of Northwestern University, the country's first independent forensic science crime laboratory, which Goddard headed. This university brought firearms identification, fingerprinting, blood analysis, and trace evidence under one roof. Goddard advised the FBI in 1932 when they set up a similar forensic science crime laboratory.

In the still controversial case of Sacco and Vanzetti, Goddard's firearms tests in 1927 verified that the revolver police found on Nicola Sacco was that used in the fatal robbery- the defense experts concurred with his finding. Because of Goddard's work, countless numbers of criminals have been brought to justice and the innocent vindicated.

Criminalist Nancy McCombs is the winner of the 2014 Calvin H. Goddard Award for Excellence in Firearm Identification.

During the AFTE 2014 Training Seminar banquet dinner in Seattle, Washington, Nancy McCombs. was awarded the Goddard Award for Excellence in Firearms Identification.

Nancy has been a criminalist since 1990, and although she didn’t start in firearms, she has certainly made a name for herself not only with AFTE, but throughout California, and North America. Beyond her actual casework at the DOJ lab in Fresno, Nancy has poured an incredible amount of effort into improving the field of firearms identification. She has done this through diligent research and training at the National Firearms Academy, and all over the US and Canada.