Dfc

[FEBA]

Mother in Law has invited herself to stay a while and has just told me this story regarding my father in law.
Gordon Cruickshank was a radio officer on catalinas during the second world war. Whilst on Russian convoy patrols his aircraft was shot down and ditched in the freezing waters. Gordon remained at his post after the other crew had abandonned ship broadcasting position reports. These were interceppted by the navy and the crew rescued. Without his efforts the whole crew would have perished in the freezing waters. The Captain of the Navy ship was impressed with Gordons selfless actions and recommended that he should be awarded the DFC. He was, but after RTB at Sulum Voe he and a few others went for a beer or two. During this time his CO held an inspection and found the state of Gordons room to be wanting. The CO declared that any man who could leave a room in such a state was not fit to hold the DFC so he never got it.
Sadly Gordon passed away recently, am I able to appeal against this draconian decision by his CO and get the DFC back after all these years.
FEBA

[sycamore]

Feba, are you saying that your man was awarded the DFC, and then did not get/receive it; or are you saying that his CO would not support the recommendation for the award, possibly also because it was recommended by another Service; indeed the Senior Service, which would no doubt have been a bit of an embarassment and so perhaps he was looking for an excuse to not support it!!
I think you would have to gather all the relevant info that may still be around and then write to British Legion / Veterans /Sqdn associations.Flypast magazine have a contributor who knows a lot about medals/awards, they may be a help.
Iwould have thought that any lack of support for an award following a recommendation would have to have been documented and recorded formally, ie reasons-in-writing; mind you I would bet it would not say "his pit was an absolute disgrace, and so he is unworthy".
Didn`t know you could get a DFC for cleaning and polishing, otherwise i`d have tried harder!!
All the best, I hope you can get it resolved... :ok:

[FEBA]

Sycamore
Thank you very much for your reply. As far as I know the story was (verbatim from Granny) that he did not get the award because of the state of his room. There is some conflict here because Granny claims it was due to untidiness and as I recall, Gordon told me that he was caught flagrante delicto during an inspection. The latter is more likely as, if he was going out with Granny at the time, he's hardly likely to have told her the full facts. However, whatever the reason, neither account of the truth warrants having a medal being taken away.
For Granny's sake, and now that Grandad has passed away, I shall try to dig out some more information, though Lord knows where I shall start.
Once again, many thanks
FEBA

[SPIT]

Hi
Why dont you try the AIR HISTORICAL BRANCH??? They might be able to help you out. GOOD LUCK
ALL THE BEST and I hopr you are successfull with this (please excuse the spelling):confused: ;)

[sycamore]

Seeking comfort after such a traumatic experience ....!!
Good to see he had the "Right Stuff"!! :ok:
Unfortunately his CO must have been a real plonker..I`m sure the Navy would have " viewed" it in a different light,so to speak!Get digging.....and to take a line from the Chinook thread..

Justice has no time limit.:ok:

[SASless]

My Grandfather was recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the Phillippine Islands during the Insurrection (circa 1898)..retrieved three wounded troops under direct rifle and machine gun fire during an ambush of his unit. An uncle, after many years of trying, ultimately was able to obtain the DSC that was actually awarded. Alas, Granddad had passed away without physically receiving the DSC medal.

The interesting information uncovered was the exchange of letters between Gramps and his Platoon Leader after the action. Gramps remarked that he felt safe doing what he did because "they were aiming at me thus I felt it unlikely they would hit me!"

[Training Risky]

Good luck in trying to get any justice... or indeed any sense out of the shambles that is the Personnel Mis-management Agency.