Congratulations Ma'am
 

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....44c2e7e062.jpg
Nikki Thomas first female fast jet Squadron Commander ‘ taking the reins ‘ as Station Commander at RAF Akrotiri in the hand over ceremony today.

What are all those medals?

Well done Nikki. Roll on the day when such an event isn’t especially newsworthy...

OBE, GSM, Op Telic (Iraq 2), Op Herrick (Afghanistan - not sure why she has 2), Queen's Jubilee, LSGC. Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Exascoteer
 

The right hand one is for Op Shader. I agree that it looks very similar to the Herrick medal.

BV

Excellent news.

A superb Nav, QWI and a really nice person (in the best possible sense).

Another good one moving up the greasy pole!

TY BV

I hadn't realised they were so similar.

I'm guessing the bar on her GSM is 'Air Ops Iraq'?

I know what you mean but it's good that it is for now so that others can be inspired.

Queen's Jubilee? I thought they were awarded in 1977 (well, mine was...).

Why oh why does the RAF insist on making female officers wear those ridiculous hats? Why can't they wear the same hat as males?

Thankyou for that.

Gold not Silver

There have been four OSMs to date, each with the same design ribbon of wide red central portion (Army) then with equal, stripes each side of dark blue and light blue (RN/RAF). The final stripe at the ribbon edge is an attempt to represent the theatre....sand for Herrick, green for Barras, grey for Shader and then deep red for Democratic Republic of Congo (DROC OSM is very rare, I think only about 200 or so were issued). The colours of the three services represent the rough ratio of each, ie the Army is the largest with both the other two about half the strength, it is not representative of the effort expended.

Congratulations and well done. one thing, I would suggest she takes that hat back to where ever, it does not appear to line up with her face. Women's caps are so awful to start with, they remind me of Captain Scarlet's minus the flip down mic.

The PMRAFNS one is much better.


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Fascinating. Senior officer gets routine posting.

Do you plan to post all the other appointments and handovers this year?

Indeed the hats used to be the same style


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https://www.oldnautibits.com/stock_p...page=stock.php

That is not a PM officer, Caduces are missing on the lapels.

No it the 1st head of the WRAF, I was referring to proones post as why can they not simply use the men’s style cap.

With four campaign medals, all of which are “earning”, a little odd there is no ACSM11 (720 days) although I’m fully aware RAF tours are shorter but more frequent that Army.