I don't know how many times I'd heard this very thing in Command CPO/CWO meetings of putting people in for the MSM/MSC/MMM that weren't Senior NCO's or Officers...in fact, this was a direction coming from NDHQ, yet it seemed the goal posts for those awards were always different for a "normal person" (ie - a coal faced Pte, Cpl or MCpl or young Lt/Capt/Naval equivalents), as when people got nominated for them, they were lucky to get a Formation Commander's or CDS commendation...or worse, solely a brief mention of how cool they were in their PER and phuque all else. Sometimes it's an issue at Unit level for not knowing any different (or, let's face it, personalities often get shit mixed over these things), but other times it's at the Formation or higher levels either because of poor staff work or, again, someone believes a more junior person couldn't possibly be deserving of such a thing/has no business receiving it...see next paragraph.
Much like
@Blackadder1916, I too have a story I've told the odd time here as well...only it was the opposite. The looks I got from several senior Medical Branch CWO/MWO's while going to be invested as a Serving Member of The Order of St John were incredibly disdainful...especially from the one's that only had a CD, wondering how I (and a non-medical colleague from Pet) were getting the award as "mere" MCpl's...difference was we had actually worked for St John Ambulance in non-instructor capacities as community service volunteers, we were both officers within our respective Branches and Superintendents for our local divisions - I'd been volunteering with the (then) Brigade for well over 9 or 10 years at the time. I did the silent insubordination thing and stared them down all the way to the cathedral...a few other people came up to me at the reception with the GG and asked "What did you do to be nominated?"...when I told them, most invariably went "Oh..." turned red/purple and muttered something and excused themselves. It put quite a damper on what should have been a good day.
On a less sombre note, I was at a Remembrance Day lunch in Sussex, NB (where the Gagetown Base Clinic paraded) and was caught reading someone's medals and something seemed off to me. Old dude was blind, but his grand daughter was there and noticed me staring, so I asked about them...I was thinking he was Walting actually because he had both a South-East Asia Star AND a Burma Star. Truth be told, he had almost every campaign star from WW2 except the Air and Northwest Europe Stars. My Grandfather was in the British Army and spent a large part of the war in India and Burma - they were told they were entitled to only one or the other as Burma was technically in the same theatre...most Burma vets went with the Burma Star, it's quite distinctive. Turns out, this gent was Merchant Marine and apparently they were just handed the gongs for where they went - he'd been on ships in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, South Pacific and had 2 torpedoed out from under him.
It pays dividends not to assume.
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