Originally Posted by
Jimlad1
The lack of medallic recognition is becoming a major issue for a lot of guys. In the RN for instance there are people who have done 5,6 or more tours in Bahrain. The argument that 'oh but you get LSA' seems to ignore the fact that you are away from home, subject to pressures that are not necessarily hostile, but which do place restrictions on your life, and which do involve a lot of commitment.
I personally think beyond the 'Long Service', 'Campaign' and 'Gallantry' medals, that a 4th category is needed for what I'd call 'deployment' medals. Essentially a single gong which you can add clasps to for time deployed on an Operation that is not a Campaign. This would recognise repeat offenders in the Cyprus / Bahrain areas, but also allow for a SHADER campaign medal for those on the ground or in airspace to sublty differentiate the additional risk.
The days of people with the HERRICK/TELIC combo being commonplace are drawing to an end, with far fewer people having that now. Yet we remain busy and operationally deployed, even if not every deployment is a two way range. Recognising that our people do great work overseas in a small way seems reasonable to me.
Jimlad1,
Fully concur, especially as medals are one of the few things we have left to recognise service given the rapidly dwindling recognition in other elements of our Ts & Cs. In my opinion the Canadians, IIRC, have it right. They have an 'operational' medal for those actually sausage side and what amounts to a 'support' medal for those employed on named ops but not actually in country doing the fighting. So there is precedent in the Commonwealth for such an arrangement I think the US had something similar for the GWOT before individual Iraq/Afghanistan medals. And if the Canadians require HM 'approval' and it has been given, then the blockage would be some senior types in the system rather than HM taking a dim view of too many medals.
If Middle Eastern ops in the broader sense and the Falklands are so important then give the guys a 'non-op' medal. It's really not hard and would go a way to actually proving that people are our best asset when everything else seems to be hit by constraints.