Originally Posted by
Easy Street
Melchie,
Next up from CBE is a knighthood and as I mentioned they’re being increasingly tight with those, so CBE has to cover everything from gp capt upwards unless a K is warranted. However an AVM has to do a lot more than a gp capt for it to be considered ‘exceptional’ for their rank!
Easy Street,
Thanks for the clarification. I have often wondered whether being at those elevated ranks makes it easier to carry out such K-earning duties, in the same way that the nature of recent operations made it ‘easier’ for RW crews to win DFCs etc (I use the term easy advisedly and in context - nothing easy about it at all in absolute terms). But if CBEs and Ks are for making a difference at a higher or national level, surely it is easier to argue such a case by virtue of the posts in the higher echelons of Defence and within Govt such ranks tend to occupy?
As it stands, I do happen to know the AVM in question. If I were to say that in spring 2015 when I last worked for him he was a plain old Gp Capt, to have hit second year AVM plus a CBE well inside 4 years does rather suggest an upward trajectory!