WO II Carl Ley, GM

[charliegolf]

Uckin marvellous!

A humbling (ied disposal) story. When questioned, he immediately deflected the glory to the 'ordinary' squaddie going about his business daily. An uplifting news clip.

CG

[Standby!]

Top bloke; well done. But isn't this an aviation forum?:(

[cazatou]

Standby

Its a MILITARY aviation forum.

Let us honour a very brave man.

[Tankertrashnav]

Yep, aircrew or no aircrew my congratulations to the guy, very well deserved:ok:

(Incidentally, vecvechookattack I recently discovered a kindred spirit in Nigel Havers who hates barbeques and was talking about "some ghastly thing called a Weber" on Grumpy Old Men).

[Tallsar]

Great man - brave, honorable and loyal....shame many of our leaders and general community have no real idea or appreciation of what inspires people like that anymore. Long may we have them - and long may they live!!.

Also puzzled by the GM..thought it was crosses only these days...and given it was an op theatre and countering enemy action...would have thought something else would have been better...even a VC would not have gone amiss.

[Tankertrashnav]

Tallsar - to explain about the GM - it's an award given to both civilians and military. It's in a different category to the old DFC/DFM, MC/MM where it was crosses for the officers and warrant officers and medals for the ORs, its always just been the George Medal, civvie or service, whatever the rank.

As regards the VC, it's always given for action "in the presence of the enemy" and even though there may well be Taliban nearby, this sort of gallantry would more appropriately be awarded by the George Cross if the highest level award were being considered. I'm a bit surprised WO Ley didnt get the GC, in fact, considering his actions. Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid received a posthumous George Cross for very similar work, but the fact that he was killed while defusing an IED may have influenced the decision to make the higher award

[Dengue_Dude]

Bravery is bravery is bravery - in whatever form.

Cold-blooded courage/excitement like that is awesome.

Congratulations, I SO wish they just gave him an instructional job rather than return to the front line though.

[STANDTO]

Standby!

Are we related?


Standto!:)

[Standby!]

Never been to the IOM in my life! Guess not! :D You're a little too 'CAPITAL' for me!

[Green Flash]

But isn't this an aviation forum
Without wishing to have another go at Standby's honest question, but some of the IED's so skilfully dealt with by WO Ley may have been detected by air assets, amongst others. It's a team thing to deal with an IED which takes nothing away from the fact that at the end of the process someone has to go in and neutralise it. Someone like the awesome Carl Ley, GM. Sir, I salute you.:ok:

[downsizer]

And lets not forget the RAF Airmen employed in the CIED task groups across the 'Stan, including the RAFs first High Threat IEDD operator.