Well I know sod all about modern (ie post 1960) aircraft such as F14s, so I thought I'd have a go at the medal ribbons ;)

TTN, although I - of course - bow to your superior knowledge on ribbons, may I make a first stab on the few that are visible on the picture on post #47.

At the end of the top row we seem to have a Gulf War 1 medal, followed by a UN Cyprus ribbon, which would indicate UN service in Cyprus post GW1, but not before. Possible I guess.

Stranger is the end of the second row which seems to be a ?BE ribbon, which should be early in row 1. Not too clear; the tab end of ribbons can often be - comme moi - odd foreign ones. Is there any possible foreign contender that looks a bit like an MBE/OBE?? Or are we giving too much credence to the wardrobe department ...........

TTN
 

I think it is;
CB, GSM 1962, Afghanistan, Iraq, UN Cyprus,
NATO Service Medal, Accumulated Campaign Service Medal, SJM, DJM, OBE(?)
Looking at post 47, I say OBE but it could be another of the BE series . If it is it is in the incorrect place.

I meant to say RIBBONS.

Aaron.

Calm down SilsoeSid.

Perhaps we had better send this thread to Angels, the film costumiers, who won a BAFTA earlier in the year for their film costumes over many years. Maybe they need TTN as a consultant

Actually I think others have done better than I have on this, cant fault your solution AARON- I blame my eyesight which is definitely not what it was! Yes that last one does look like an OBE/MBE but that would definitely be in the wrong place

A couple of years ago I worked on a production in which we were required to show a hypothetical UK military unit as it would exist in the year 2090. As part of this we did a fair bit of research into rank and unit insignia, and particularly medal ribbons as we wanted to show those which would survive until 2090, and include some new ones which might be developed in the meantime.

In general I feel that a reasonable effort was made to get it right, although the first day on set one of our actors, an ex army officer, immediately pointed out a glitch in the placement of ribbons on the jacket.

In the defence of the film industry in general, there are several problems:

- The history and traditions of the UK military in particular make it very, very complicated, as this thread illustrates

- The producers realise that their ability to make money out of the production is not dependent on accuracy, so they won't budget the time to spend to get it right, over the objections of the costume people, and

- Scripts are generally written long before the involvement of a military advisor. Advisors generally want paying (the assistance I've received here notwithstanding). At the point when major story decisions are made, the writer is often working at risk that the script may never be produced, so it's difficult to justify the cost.

P