First of all, congratulations to the chap - doubtless a tough day in the office. Every campaign will have an entry point for the award of medals; invariably the "tariff" will rise over time if the campaign is prolonged. In Afghanistan, acts that got a DFC in 2006 barely warranted a MiD by 2012 given the very real threats faced on a near daily basis (both environmental and kinetic) by nearly all crews. IMHO, the citations for some of the later DFCs awarded in Herrick near, if not breach, the threshold for higher awards. Therefore, let's not try to directly compare a "Shader DFC" with a "Late Herrick DFC" as the tariffs will be significantly different. FWIW, I think it's good to see that the boys/girls who are doing the daily grind over there are receiving some recognition of the job they're doing. LJ, I agree re the RPAS crews. Had a beer with a few in LV last year and they are being pretty well thrashed….there needs to be an adequate mechanism to note their efforts too. Changing tack slightly, nice to see Al Smith sneaking in the bottom of that RAF list for a US award. TTN, as it's promulgated but he RAF, will he be allowed to wear it?