Operational Honours and Awards

[Wrathmonk]

Congratulations to all.:D

See here (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/HistoryAndHonour/OperationalHonoursAndAwardsList6March2009.htm).

[picnic]

Thank you one and all.

Also thank you to those not on the list.

[November4]

Respect to all. Shame that the citiations weren't published along with the awards in the London Gazette (online version that is)

As reported in the Daily Mail....

Lt Gen Lamb praised the recipients, saying:

'These warriors are the stuff of legend.

'They know the meaning of life and death, of standing by your friends, of standing up and being counted.

'These young people are as tough as nails. They do get knocked on their backsides every so often but they do not lie there and whine that life is unfair. They get up, dust themselves off and get on with it.

'They are the British Armed Forces - they defend this realm and our way of life.

'Look no further for your 21st-century role models. These are your real heroes, they live among you, they defend you and your right to freedom and the freedom of those less fortunate than you. There are none better.'

My bold.....puts the heroes of football and TV into perspective.

[BobHead]

I can accept the awards for bravery above and beyond the call of duty. Heroes ,every one and fully deserving of all the Country can give.

Honours, never my favorite item, then the award to Edward Kennedy of a Knighthood, this is a man who succored and supported the IRA for 30 years. Would you like to stand next to him to collect your Knighthood next from HMQ.

If the answer is "Yes" then you should not be there either.

BobH

[high spirits]

Without denegrating the well-deserved awards of the army or RN, all of whom have been well recognised for their gallantry, well done to the RAF recipients of the DFC and AFC, Flt Lt Frenchie Duncan, Flt Lt Kev Harris, Flt Lt Nick Paton and Flt Lt Lee Turner. All of whom I have either served with or met - very well deserved, and as usual all of whom are helicopter brothers! To those who read this, please read the citations under open source info: they inspire...

[E-Spy]

Is there an online version of the citations? If there is, can someone post a link?
Cheers
Spy

[ConingsbyFlyingClub]

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafiles/DB4BBEDB_1143_EC82_2E90B7B7979B662D.pdf

[AdLib]

Fantastic performance from a bunch of people who we are rightly proud of.

What the fcuk has "they defend this realm and our way of life" go to do with it?

[Bunker Mentality]

Err - that's what they do?

It's part of a speech given by Lt Gen Sir Graeme Lamb at the announcement of these gallantry awards.

Full text is here: Army Rumour Service > > Forums > > The Serious Bit > > Current Affairs, News and Analysis > > Lt Gen Lamb speaks for all of us in the Armed Forces (http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/viewtopic/t=118130.html)

How was your hangover today?

[MightyGem]

Good efforts by all! Well done.

[Chugalug2]

CFC, thank you for the link to the citations. Reading them I was filled with a sense of awe mixed with pride. Such incredible selfless bravery from each and everyone of the recipients. These are testing times for our Armed Forces. Here we see the measure of how they rise to the very dangerous challenges that they face daily, in the face of a resolute enemy or the equally resolute natural elements. The Royal Air Force has a proud record of heroic service. These acts of bravery continue that proud record. I salute these brave men and all the service-men and women serving our country.

[MrBernoulli]

I didn't spot a citation for Nick Paton in that pdf link above. Does anyone know of a separate link at all? Or was he perhaps involved in stuff that can't be spoken about here or in public?

Well done to all concerned. Sadly, I still don't think the RAF 'system' acknowledges enough of the bravery displayed by its personnel .......

[3winged]

Nick's citation plus a couple of others will not be made public. Rest assured that it was thoroughly deserved though!

Well done to all the recipients of all the levels of awards, and please all spare a thought for those who continue to do brave things, in the name of our country, every day and will never get the recognition they deserve.

:ok:

[nunquamparatus]

This is a tough one isn't it? I am delighted for anyone who has their bravery recognised - whether it is under fire or just in exceptional circumstances (like Jack London recovering a cabriolet SHAR back to a small piece of tin in the Gulf of Aden). As a qualified war-dodger (arse slightly shiny) I have nothing but huge admiration for those members of the armed forces who find themselves under fire on a daily basis but whose reward is normally merely the respect of their fellow soldiers/sailors/airmen. What does p*ss me off royally, however, is the senior officers who wander away from a warzone with the likes of a DSO/DSC (or whatever the new equivalent awards are) for, frankly, having done their job. There are examples in all three services and IMHO none of them really deserved the tin. I have colleagues with a chestful of medals and those with merely the QGJM - all of them doing their job - some rewarded for going above and beyond the call of duty and some for sunbathing in the Adriatic.

I guess the point I am driving at is that the awards system has always been open to criticism. Whilst some AF award you for getting up in the morning and not tripping over your feet others scarcely recognise the sacrifice made on a daily basis by thousands of service personnel - AND THEIR FAMILIES. For those of you on the list for risking your soft pink skins - congrats. For those of you who were on the list for doing your job - well done for playing the system but I hope you recognise those people under you without whom nothing would get done.

For the rest of you - just know that just pitching up to work makes you better than 90% of the mivvies out there for whom "stress" means something very different.

I shall now step off my soap box.:ok: