Operational Awards and other stuf!

[Ken Hannah]

Dear all.

Not wishing to be controversial or demean the efforts/service of our current serving Corps members but….. Yesterday I tuned into Forces TV and watched a medal parade of members of 5 Fld Amb being presented with their operational medals for service during the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone.

Question: “Since when have ‘we as a nation’ been awarding Operational medals for what can only be described (in my time) as a Hearts & Minds deployment (humanitarian operation if you wish)”….Where was the incoming????

I don’t recall an Op medal being awarded to members of 2 Fld Hosp for service in Jordan in the 70s - the Nepal earthquake etc, etc is there a difference??

I hate to be an old pain in the ‘out of touch’ A but does anyone else feel uncomfortable (if that is the right word) about seeing ‘guys’ wearing QA cap badges/colours - aka the CO of 5 Fld Amb for instance plus other ‘male nurses’. Maybe 30 years service in the RAMC has clouded my judgement!

Also noted in the programme that ‘We’ have gone back to wearing ‘trade’ bands on the right arm cuffs of No 2 dress - since when - answers on a post card!

PS – if anyone is interested in old Corps articles and photos, have a look at: http://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/b...digramc... great photos. As an ex Adjt of 16 Fld Amb in the late 1980s it was amazing to see photos of my unit in 1917 - we have a lot to be thankful for!

Regards - an old fogy.......................

[Bob Sheppard]

All of the above mentioned Ken ,quite weird ,makes you feel very uneasy,is this a process of emasculating the RAMC or writing us out of Military history?

[Ken Hannah]

(11-15-2015 11:04 PM)Bob Sheppard Wrote:  All of the above mentioned Ken ,quite weird ,makes you feel very uneasy,is this a process of emasculating the RAMC or writing us out of Military history?

Not sure Bob but when we have gone - who will give a toss?

Ken

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Reply to my ('Not wishing to be controversial' message on this Forum and copied on the RAMC OTTs page on Facebook) from Guy McFadden - Newman. I thought I would share it with members on here who are not on Facebook as I feel it should be circulated. A good post from Guy:

[i]There were always trade bands (Pte-Cpl.) while I was in 84-07. And obviously they're still around.
The Sierrra Leone medal for the Ebola crisis isn't an operational medal, if you check the order of precedence it goes right at the end of the rack. There was a lot of discussion about recognising our troops that served there, working so closely with such a deadly disease etc... Although I do agree it was a strange choice of awarding a medal for it when we, the British Army, have deployed to a multitude of other places with no recognition at all.
Complaining about the issue of medals will always happen, Silver Jubilee (which hardly anyone got) Golden & Diamond Jubilee (with people complaining they missed out because they either haven't served enough time or they'd left before the issue date), Gulf medal for those serving in Cyprus etc, there's criteria, you win some you lose some.
It's not uncomfortable seeing males in QA berets, stable belts, mess dress etc, steady yourself Ken, they even have male Health Care Assistants (sort of like ward stewardesses in old money). They are all proud of their Corps just like the females in the RAMC are proud of their Corps.

I invited military 'scrub nurses' such as Jenny into our group because at least they work within the prerioperative environment with the OTTs/ODPs and a lot of them are great advocates of our trade.[/i]

Thanks Guy