I remember that in my youth when I was attending Remembrance Parades there appeared to be a distinct difference in the number of medals worn by veterans in attendance. There would have been the WW2 veterans who always impressed me with a chest full of medals - Usually Victory and Defence Medals with a selection of Stras and perhaps one or two others. Then there were those who perhaps served in the 1950's - 60's and may have had a G.S.M and U.N. medal or two. I has a super Armed Forces Day at Carrickfergus yesterday and it appears that todays Armed Forces are collection a veritable chest full! Consider that since 1982 there is South Atlantic, Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Iraq. I have attached a picture of a young woman from Ballymena who has recently won the Military Cross and who was in attendance at Carrickfergus. Credit where credit is due.
Regaridng the Armed Forces Day paradres - I didn't make it to Carrickfergus, but caught a few minutes of the Edinburg parade on the Beeb... Was it just me or were the regular services detachments ABSOLUTELY CRAP at something as simple and foolproof as marching?
A mate of mine did 22 years and came out of the Army a couple of years ago as a Staff Sgt. Below a pic of his miniature set: I believe NI, Iraq, Afgahanistan, Golden Jubilee and LS&GC (hope that's the right order!).
Regaridng the Armed Forces Day paradres - I didn't make it to Carrickfergus, but caught a few minutes of the Edinburg parade on the Beeb... Was it just me or were the regular services detachments ABSOLUTELY CRAP at something as simple and foolproof as marching? We were coming back from tours doing a couple of hours of drill then doing a parade with weapons, hard enough for us RE's normally never mind when not done drill for best part of a year. I got GSM 1962 NI, FRY (Bosnia) UN, FRY (Bosnia) NATO, FRY (Kosovo) NATO, Afghan, Iraq with Clasp, LSGC and Queens Jubilee for my 24 years and 9 operational tours. At the time I left I had the most medals of any soldier in my unit.
Hi Yes the marching in Edinburgh wasn't great, but they were on cobbles which wouldn't have helped. I tried it once at Norwich BoB Day parade and we were rubbish too. The SWO blamed the band . I knew chaps who got Operational Service Medals who never left Whitehall. The pilots of the RAF's Predator Drones now flying over Afghan/Lybia are all based near Las Vegas. Gus
No wishing to pour cold water on the medals total (but in fact doing so, I hope). My grandfather has the lowest number of medals of any of the seven members of my family serving with Raf, Navy, marines, army throughout ww2 and ww1 and palestine, cypus suez, NI emergencies etc. However, my Grandfather has (wrong tense - had) only three medals in total but fought for three years in WWI in the front line as a number one machine gunner before being invalided and honourably discharged after being gassed and seriously wounded (over 20 operations). His total number is just three! Sorry but inflation is at work again.
A Foreman of Signals (WO2) in my Regiment did 22 years in the Regs and was rather proud that he had managed to avoid receiving any medals during his military career and then just before he left he was very pissed off to find out he was getting a Jubilee Medal
During the 1950's the Government were doing it on the cheap and only giving bars to the GSM medals. The GSM covered the Canal Zone, Suez 1956, Malaya, Belize, Northern Ireland, Radfan, Aden, Quater, Cyprus, Borneo, and we had a chap in our Association who had two GSM medals with all the above Bars
