the trouble is in the military the system appears rigged to award those that are in a position to nominate those awards, true you get the odd one that is not an officer or of higher rank, but one see's those as a token effort.

When I was at university reading Russian I did a dissertation on Russian and Soviet orders as part of my degree.

The Soviet system of awards which evolved from the old Czarist Russian ranks of nobility made our own system look positively niggardly, as medals were awarded on every conceivable occasion including appropriately enough the Order of Motherhood which awarded medals in 6 grades for producing children for the Motherland!

Recipients of medals received more than just a bit of tin and a ribbon. Holders of the Order of Lenin, for example, were accorded the right to go straight to the front of a queue wherever it may be. As long queues were a daily part of Soviet life this was quite a useful perk. Heroes of the Soviet Union and Soviet Labour not only received a solid gold medal, but were granted a "time share" in a dacha (holiday home) usually at a Black Sea resort, with free train travel there and back.

Interesting that a system where everybody was supposed to be equal enthusiastically built up an honours system in which everybody was certainly not equal. I haven't kept up with the post 1992 Russian orders system, but I wouldn't be surprised if it followed the lines of its Soviet predecessor

Russians? Pah - mere amateurs in the gong-grabbing stakes:

One wonders quite what perks this lot now have!


Does one of them really have a gong dangling from his willy?

Perhaps it's to recognise 'Length of Service' :E

is that General Wun Hung-Lo?

Might also be General Ti Gong Kok ...

Comrade General Gong on Dong?

Looks more like the Moscow Chapter of their version of Pearly Kings

Spot on Nutty and to be fair, the same applies to the civil system too. Its just human nature. People in power tend to favour the people closest to them. I know that in the civil system, anyone can "nominate" someone for an honour but its still the people at the top of the tree who have the final say. At the end of the day, the top awards seem to go to the people at the top of the system.

To be fair Beagle if your mid ranking US officer wore the actual medals they are awarded (as our friends in N Korea do) rather than than just the ribbon they'd need a pickup truck to carry them around

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...%28USAF%29.jpg

The woman is a serial failure!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Ho...d_incompetence

One award of a CBE went to an ex army reservist surgeon who spent 6 months as a trauma surgeon at Bastion. He managed an Ebola hospital in Sierra Leone for 4 months and then soon after went to Nepal for the earthquake. As well as fighting the waste of space that is the WHO he was also heavily clinically involved in patient care.

Chris is a very humble person and a gentleman. One of the better awards I think.

As to be expected, Private Eye this week puts a very sharp spear through many of those getting this year's gongs, including that wombat from the HMRC. Depressing reading.

Skua:

Sir, you malign a fine creature, unless you wanted to fire the recipient out of a wombat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L6_Wombat

Indeed :-)

Heathrow Harry, to be even fairer your picture emphasing your comment about mid ranging American officers is of a 4* General. As high as it goes here in the UK.

Heathrow Harry, to be even fairer your picture emphasing your comment about mid ranging American officers is of a 4* General.

To be even fairer still, the photograph features the very notable General Curtis LeMay - and a British DFC in addition to his US one, and so many others. No surprise there.

As high as it goes here in the UK.

Although five star promotions "lapsed" in 1995, Royal Family promotions such as The Prince of Wales excepted, there have been a trio of such promotions to honorary five star rank for former CDSs since, namely Charles Guthrie in 2012 and Mike Boyce and Jock Stirrup in 2014.

Jack

I was looking for this picture TBH - General Cheeseburger

http://www.polarimagazine.com/wp-con...1/11/Kenny.jpg
http://www.pprune.org/data:image/jpe...USZDNcuXLUk//Z

Union Jack

5* is now only a ceremonial appointment only and I think that's probably the same with the US nowadays as well?

No big whoop as far as I'm concerned, Mostafa, ceremonial or not, but still five stars - unless of course you wish to tell F...., sorry, Lord Guthrie otherwise.:D

With one notable exception, I believe that the cousins have kept the lid on five star promotions, or appointments if you so prefer, since 1945.

Jack