2011 Operational Honours list

[Diablo Rouge]

Ministry of Defence | Defence News | History and Honour | Operational Honours and Awards List: 25 March 2011 (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/HistoryAndHonour/OperationalHonoursAndAwardsList25March2011.htm)

[wokkawarrior]

Well done to all those on the list. Good to see Odiham being recognised again for all their hard work, and especially good to see a MAOT receiving an MID. There can't be many in the Ops Branch with that award.

[Tashengurt]

First time an MC has been awarded to a Kylie? Greatest respect to her and all others on the list, especially those who won't be collecting their gongs in person.

[c130jbloke]

Well done to all of these brave service personnel.

Especially to those with the brackets after the name of their unit.

[Tankertrashnav]

Tashengurt - Totally agree about Kylie! Thats another female medic with the MC, which is great. Those girls have got balls! And RIP the guys whose grieving relatives will be collecting their gongs.

[sisemen]

Well done to all.

Had a brief Spike Milligan moment on the "Mentioned in Despatches" list.

Report despatched from the sandpit.....

"......incoming enemy fire causing damage to the perimeter. Cpl Smith brought a timely cup of tea. Enemy forces were subsequently repulsed...."

As Cpl Smith got a mention does he get the gong??? :}

[helidriver]

A big well done to Sqn Ldr Matt Roberts, very much deserved:ok:

Regards,

h

[minigundiplomat]

A big well done to Sqn Ldr Matt Roberts, very much deserved:ok:


Echoed.

A true gent and a very capable guy.

[November4]

Details of 4 RAF awards here (http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive.cfm?storyid=139F7B2F-5056-A318-A838C225CD242CDE&rss=true)

Brave men and women one and all.

[Torque limited]

Who has the right approach?

People who write themselves up after every mission to be screened by their Det Cdr/CO who will probably put them forward for an honour/award;

or,

Someone else who does his job and if he does it well then he might be written up by someone else for an outstanding effort. However he has nothing to do with the citation because as far as he was concerned he was only doing his job...

[Talk Reaction]

I've never heard of anyone 'writing themselves up' - lets not drag this thread into a pointless and bitter debate!

Well done all, clearly, as usual, there's one thing we're not short on in the British armed forces, shame the price is so dear. Undoubtedly though, were it not for many of these individuals, the price would probably be much harder to bear
:D

[Tankertrashnav]

I see that this list is probably the first to include awards to RAF lance corporals


Queens Commendation for Bravery in the Air
Lance Corporal Michael Charles BRACEGIRDLE, Royal Air Force Honington
Lance Corporal Richard John RADCLIFFE, MoD




Well done guys - not many rockapes with that award!

[woptb]

I believe Mick Bracegirdle is RAMC.

[Tankertrashnav]

Yes - much confusion here. He is included on the RAF list as shown on my post (from RAF MoD site), but The Times shows him as RAMC and receiving the QCB not QCBA. Either way well done Mick :ok:

[Yozzer]

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/people3/apr2011/3/6/adam-booth-article-833529149.jpg

Cut & paste from 'The People' newspaper 3 Apr 11.

A hero airman believes a “golden angel” lucky charm has helped him to cheat death TWENTY times in Afghanistan. RAF Flight Lieutenant Adam Booth, 30, *survived a bullet which hit him in an arm, *another which flew *between his legs, 16 *grenade attacks and his vehicle being blown up – twice.

Despite the arm injury he scorned the chance to be airlifted to hospital and stayed on the battlefield to help to rescue 22 wounded soldiers – 15 of them *critically injured. And dad-of-two Adam says it’s all thanks to that lucky charm that he is still alive. He said: “It’s a gold brooch of an angel about a centimetre across that my wife got for me. When I go away she hides it in my equipment and I have to find it.

I don’t wear it because it has a pin and I don’t want it to stick into me when I’m lying on the ground. I keep it in my day sack and it goes everywhere with me. It seems to have done its job.” The soldiers Adam was working with began to notice how many times he had come close to death – and a sergeant nicknamed him Jonah. Adam said: “There’ve been lots of explosions, I’ve been shot, I’ve had dust in the eyes, mouthfuls of grit and ringing ears, but I’ve got away with it”.

The airman, of Basingstoke, Hants, received a Mention in Despatches for his heroism in the rescue of the wounded soldiers while serving near Nad-e Ali in Helmand. He said: “A bullet from a burst of heavy tracer fire hit my right arm and knocked me two or three metres to the ground and hit the guy who was *covering me in the legs. “I had a mouthful of grit and could not feel my arm at all.”

Adam called in a helicopter to pick up his badly injured colleague – but refused to travel with him. He said: “My job was to hang around until we had got 130 men safely off the ground. I didn’t think twice. I had to stay.”

I trust Jonahs section will get the 'Slab' tomorrow! What is a 'MOAT?'

[Yozzer]

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51857000/jpg/_51857441_011622304-1.jpg
Lance Corporal Kylie Elizabeth WATSON, Royal Army Medical Corps, who hails from Ballymena in County Antrim. L/Cpl Watson has been awarded the Military Cross.

She put herself in mortal danger to treat a wounded Afghan soldier under heavy Taliban fire; and gave medical care in exposed open ground for twenty minutes. Her citation spoke of her immense courage and described her as an inspiration to her platoon.

L/Cpl Watson is believed to be only the fourth woman to receive the Military Cross, the third highest award for gallantry.

L/Cpl Watson is among 136 service personnel, most of whom served in Afghanistan with 4 Mechanised Brigade between April and

[RAFEngO74to09]

Yozzer,

Interesting article. From the RAF website:

Mobile Air Operations Team (MAOTs)

The MAOTs are part of the Joint Helicopter Support Squadron. They are a very busy unit that travels throughout the UK and beyond to give advice to military and civilian organizations on the utilization of helicopters. There are 13 Mobile Air Operations Teams, each one consisting of an RAF Officer, Master Aircrew or Senior Non-Commissioned Officer and 2 Signallers from 21 Signals Regiment (Air Support) based at Colerne in Wiltshire. The Teams regularly deploy on operations and exercises in support of the British Army and the Support Helicopter Force (SHF). Primarily the Teams co-ordinate and control helicopter movements into and out of the helicopter landing sites (HLS), and provide communications between the supported unit and the aircraft. When deployed the Team Leader (TL) acts as the trouble-shooter for all helicopter matters with an overarching responsibility for Flight Safety. As a secondary duty, TLs are also responsible for maintaining and updating the information contained in the various HLS directories in use by all military helicopters.

[Whenurhappy]

Again I echo the congratulations to all those who received awards (and particularly poignant are the number of posthumous awards).

We often hear in OJARs and SJARs or 'Ratings creep'. Well, the reverse has happened in the award of Honours and Comendations the near-Decade that HM Forces have been in continuous conflict. I recall serving in Macedonia (err, sorry, err, FYROM) in the build-up for KFOR. All sorts of people got commendations for pretty mundane tasks, eg: assembling portaloos (I sh!t you not - an AOC's commendation, I believe). I was written-up for resolving (!) a particularly hair-raising incident with some 'Allies', along with my driver and a medic. Brave as we felt at the time, I suspect now such actions wouldn't rate a mention, given the intensity of operations in the 'Stan.

The bar has risen so high, and quite rightly so, but it will be interesting to see what will happen when we eventually disengage in Afghanistan. In other words, what consitutes bravery or exceptional devotion to Service (assembling portaloos, I hope, will not be a criteria)?