USMC Major awarded DFC for actions while on Lynx exchange duty.

[GreenKnight121]

Major William David CHESAREK USMC was awarded the DFC today by the Queen for evacuating wounded under fire while flying a Lynx as an exchange pilot. :ok:

I cannot seem to access the UK Times on-line article, can someone else post details?

[BEagle]

I can't find any news report apart from this from CBS:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/21/eveningnews/main2594029.shtml

Congratulations, Maj Chesarek DFC USMC!

[Chugalug2]

It was on UK TV news last night showing him and 19year old Pte Michelle Norris MC RAMC, who had given medical assistance while under fire to her wounded vehicle commander, at Buck House with their gongs. Well done to the pair of them!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6470000/newsid_6477200/6477215.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm

[Green Flash]

I beleive Maj Chesarek flew out the casualty that Pte Norris had assisted, both of them under a hail of sh!t and shot. My warmest congratulations, and deepest respect for their bravery, to both.:ok: :ok:

Slight thread creep here, but can the good Major wear his gong, under USMC rules? Are British service personnel allowed to wear foriegn medals?

[forwardassist]

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=268999

Did the words "Naval Air Squadron" put you off reading it? :}

[GreenKnight121]

Much as it may surprise you, I actually did look to see if there was a thread on this before I posted... but didn't see that one, buried as it was in all the whining & carping threads about all sorts of other crap.

Since I had been under the impression from the single news story I had heard that he was on exchange with a Brit ARMY or RAF helo squadron, and that thread title did not mention anything about USMC, or Yank... I passed it over.


So, no... you can be insulted all you want that I did not psychically understand what that thread title meant, that is your problem.

[hoodie]

USMC press release here (http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/0E82ACE21BF7090F852572A50069AE5E?opendocument).

“I am greatly honored and would like to accept this prestigious award for 847 NAS in memory of Lt. Cdr. Darren Chapman RN, Capt. David Dobson AAC, and Marine Paul Collins RM who were killed in action over Basrah in May 2006,” said Chesarek. “The awarded actions were only possible due to the combined effort of my combat crew; Lt. David Williams RN and Lance Cpl. Max Carter RM. My greatest sense of achievement that day is in knowing the ground troops all made it home.”

[A2QFI]

Permission can be, and usually is, given for the wearing of foreign medals and awards. When I was given one I got a letter from the Lord Chamberlain telling me that HM had been graciously pleased to allow me to wear my medal. Still smarting from the fact that I had been required to resign my commission in order to serve another Government, I wrote back to the LC saying that as I didn't hold a commission from the Queen I didn't need her permission to wear any medals. Unsurprisingly there was no reply or comment!

[Union Jack]

Oh dear A2! Surely it can't have been a total surprise to be required to resign your British commission before accepting a commission to serve in the defence force of a foreign government? It's all a matter of loyalties, as I'm sure the ADDF would have been the first to appreciate.

Regarding your rather chippy correspondence with the Lord Chamberlain's Office, I suspect that the reason you received no reply was that they probably didn't feel the need to reply to someone who didn't appreciate that the rule about accepting and/or wearing foreign awards is equally applicable to all British nationals, not just those fortunate enough to have been commissioned, or even in the Services atall.

Returning to the thread - well done Major Chesarek - and Private Norris of course.

Jack

[A2QFI]

I wasn't in the least suprised to have to resign my commission and I got it back when I rejoined anyway! As a 'civilian' I do not need the Queen, or anyone else's permission, to wear a foreign decoration, and when serving in a foreign country and wearing their uniform one was expected to wear any medal or orders awarded. Might be considered rude or worse not to! If you think a civilian needs Royal permission to wear a foreign award perhaps you could quote me chapter and verse? A British civilian aid worker, given some honour in Sierra Leone (say) can wear it whenever they want to and the Palace and the Sir Humphreys don't come into it.

[SilsoeSid]

Well done, but forever the cynic, can I take it he was solo in this Lynx?
Or was there another pilot in there actually 'hands on'?

Should it be the commander or the pilot who gets 'the' Distinguished FLYING Cross?

[Kitbag]

A2QFI. Not that I agree with the situation having become steadily more Republican in my advancing years, but apparently under the unwritten British constitution as British 'subjects' not citizens we are indeed supposed to do as HM pleases, civil or military and is why any legislation has to have Royal Assent. Apparently it is one of the things that makes this country great (led by donkeys comes to mind).

[NutherA2]

A2QFI: “As a 'civilian' I do not need the Queen, or anyone else's permission, to wear a foreign decoration”

Sadly, Nick, the rules regarding awards are about as comprehensible as Gordon Brown’s statistics; the Sir Humphreys are well involved in medal meddling.:ugh:

It seems that the acceptability of a “foreign” medal is determined by HM the Queen and that a Government Body known as the Honours and Decorations Committee guides her in these matters. To complicate things further, approval to WEAR such decorations is quite separate from approval to ACCEPT them.

A case in point is the Pingat Jasa Malaysia (Malaysian Service Medal). The King of Malaysia offered this decoration to British and Commonwealth service personnel and civilians who served in Malaysia between 1957 and 1966. HM was pleased to approve that the medal be accepted by all concerned, but the British HD Committee’s recommendation, peculiarly, was that British citizens could accept the medal but they would not be allowed to wear it; the Governments of Australia and New Zealand, however, accepted the medal without restriction for their citizens.

The on-going lobby to overcome this anomaly is documented at:

www.fight4thepjm.org/index.htm (http://www.fight4thepjm.org/index.htm)

[A2QFI]

NutherA2. Thank you for your informative and, I am sure, totally accurate statement of the facts! I shall be very concerned, when wearing my assorted UK and other medals on Remembrance Day, that I shall be an easier target for the police than drug dealers, joy riding chavs and graffiti artists etc. Someone recently observed that we have become a police state but without the police, luckily! I visited the link you kindly posted.

[GreenKnight121]

SilsoeSid... do you read the entire thread, or do you just skim over it before venting? If so, look at the 4th post before you, where Maj. Chesarek is quoted as saying:
“The awarded actions were only possible due to the combined effort of my combat crew; Lt. David Williams RN and Lance Cpl. Max Carter RM."


As senior officer aboard, he does get primary credit for the combined actions of his crew. And yes, he probably was the primary pilot, as his rank indicates a long service with many flight-hours.