Only the HERRICK one will have been earned on a ‘days in Theatre’ basis; the others will all have been on a ‘qualifying sortie from out of Theatre’ basis which for FJ is typically 3 per week. This effectively halves the number of qualifying days for the ACSM for a given amount of time away from home, which makes it that much rarer among FJ crews. I can think of only 2 who have it, and both had previous RW time! Every day counts when living in Theatre...

MAINJFAD (#12): The Jubilee medal pictured is the Diamond (2012). The absence of a Golden means that Gp Capt Thomas must have joined after 1997 as she hadn’t accumulated the 5 years’ service needed for its award. Swift progress to station command by today’s standards.

Adding to Sloppy Link’s explanation (#13), the SHADER OSM edge colour is officially described as ’representing the large number of airframes used in the operation’: it was announced at the time as air defence grey.

Thank you Easy, yet another piece of ammunition into my medal armoury of triv!
Q. For in theatre it is generally 28 days to qualify, how does it work for those out of theatre unless they are in on ops? One sortie?
SL

LL My thoughts exactly can anyone elaborate?

Jubilee Medals
 

The Silver Jubilee medal was awarded in 1977 for spurious reasons to spurious people (from what I understand).

The Golden Jubilee medal was awarded in 2003 to those with 5 years service or more.

The Diamond Jubilee medal was awarded in 2012 for those with 5 years service or more.

I believe Nicki Thomas joined in mid 1999 since I seem to recall she was on the IOT ahead of me.

BV

I retired from the RAF in 1978. Evidently I was insufficiently spurious to be awarded the SJM.:{

Vortex Hoop,

If you honestly cannot see what is newsworthy about the first female Fast jet Squadron commander being appointed as Station Commander of the RAF's most operational station then I suggest that your misogyny is showing.

It's the Diamond Jubilee one, not the Golden,as pointed out by Easy Street . The Golden Jublilee medal is that cheap nasty gold one that resembles those foil covered chocolate coins that you get at Christmas. Ribbon is predominantly blue. The only medal I know where privately produced copies are of a superior quality to the originals.

Great to see a woman AND a nav getting the job. By the way, is the choice of Nav or WSO brevet (sorry, flying badge) up to the individual? Pleased to see she is wearing the former.

I believe that the brevet is down ot the individual, if they were awarded an N brevet then they are allowed to continue to wear it.

Re Spekesoftly: Insufficiently spurious like most of us, I guess, not that I've ever lost any sleep over it. Who made the selection and on what basis I haven't the faintest. I knew that there was only a limited allocation of the Silver Jubilee Medal to the armed forces, but I hadn't realised quite how small until I had a quick look just now at wiki which says 9,000 across all services. On the other hand I was rather surprised to receive a Golden Jubilee Medal in the mail sometime in the summer of 02, having had my last day in the office at the beginning of Oct 01 and been busy adapting our new house on the qualifying date.

Ha! The OH was about to get the Silver, when at the last minute ‘they’ decided to give it to a wg cdr who was about to leave the RAF on retirement.

BTW, she also observes that the hat has been horribly redesigned from that which she wore.

In this day and age, it simply isn’t newsworthy. We have been told time and again that these matters are routine and down to merit, not quotas. If so, it’s just another posting.
Misogyny is just another weak over-used waffle word bandied around by virtue signallers.

And those in the film industry who turn out rubbish movies and state anybody who doesn't go to see their Cr@p movie is a misogynist.

This lady seems to have a lot of praise from those that actually know her, I'm guessing that she would cringe at the OMG 'she's a female' news.

Congratulations on your posting.

This is a military aviation forum, the lady Is probably known to many members and therefore it is of interest that she has been appointed as Station Commander at such an important base. Well done Ma’am.

It was a crazy system. There were so few "allocated"; all Stn Cdrs and (I think) Sqn Cdrs got one, but - almost by definition - they were older and so sooner to leave. Stations had a (small) allocation, many indeed gave them to OCs Wgs.

The only "sensible" rule IIRC was that Sqn Standard Bearers at Finningley for the Review got one. To (try and!) be fair, this was in the medal drought of the Cold War, when many VSOs had nothing sitting below their wings.

Still anomalies with QGJM and QDJM; "J" Class reservists (Uniformed ROs) didn't get one. Amusingly I fought (and lost) a battle for a QGJM for a uniformed RO working for me at the time; 10 years later I was one myself and didn't get the QDJM! The official answer was that "J Class reservists are Civil Servants - Civil Servants don't get the medal - too expensive to give 'em all one".

Between those two Jubilees, I had a job connected with Buck House and heard a good "dit" about the QGJM. Apparently HM wanted to give them to members of the Household, and was given the same answer. So she paid for them herself and all her staff got one! Gawd Bless 'Er!

Apologies for thread drift and congrats to Nikki T.

Three words: Very well done!

On my last day of 'clearing' when leaving Valley (as a Sgt ATechA) I was called up to OC Eng Wing's office where I was handed one of the said medals. Rather puzzlingly I was told it would be best if I delayed sewing on the ribbon until arrival at my new Unit. Anyway, having no idea what the medal represented (other than marking Her Maj's twenty five years on the throne) I pocketed it and went on my way. Arriving suitably adorned at my new Unit in the depths of Norfolk, I was puzzled as to all the comments (some of which were less than complimentary) about the newly attached bit of ribbon. I queried "why all the questions, isn't everybody being issued with one?" Doh. Presumably the Eng Wing powers that be at Valley decided the least divisive way was to give it to someone heading for the main gate, never to return...

Congrats on the Appointment Gp Capt Thomas and great to see Female Station Commanders becoming more routine. A good FJ career so far.
However, she is not the most Senior RAF Female to have served in the Base Area. From 2017 till February 2020 Air Commodore Polly Perkins served as Deputy Commander & Chief of Staff, Headquarters British Forces Cyprus commanding 8000 personnel. She is a Logistics Officer and previously as a Group Captain Polly Perkins was Head of Establishment at RAF Brize Norton.

I was selected to choose which individual of my unit was going to get the one Silver Jubilee Medal in '77 which had filtered down through the Station heirarchy. Luckily overhearing a character sounding off in a conversation whilst passing the Crew Bar made my task easy,

" What an absolute bloody shambles ! Whoever gets stuck with one of those is going to have the p*ss taken out of them mercilessly for months"

Duly awarded to the same, following my recommendation.

Love it Haraka :ok:

Paying Guest my Medals Year Book says that around 30,000 Silver Jubilee Medals were awarded, but of course that includes those awarded to police and other services, as well as members of voluntary organisations etc. The medal is certainly of a better quality than the cheap and nasty Golden Jubilee Medal I referred to above, but it was the first to use the obverse with The Queen wearing the rather "top heavy" St Edwards crown, which was also used on the South Atlantic Medal.

air pig - Thanks for the info on the nav brevet.