“Tin medals” in Oz
We got this article in our inbox this morning which tells of a battle that has erupted between veterans’ groups in Australia over what they call “tin medals” – commemorative medals that have no military significance. The folks at the Australasian and New Zealand Military Imposters (ANZMI) has threatened to post pictures on their website of members of the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans’ Association (APPVA) if the ANZI folks catch them wearing the commemorative medals in public.
Commemorative medals have no real significance and only serve to increase the size and number of medals someone might wear. ANZI says that’s fine if the APPVA wants to wear them in private ceremonies, but “not at public commemorative events and not with genuine medals on the left breast.”
“Vigilante veterans have threatened to photograph any veteran on Anzac Day who doesn’t look right,” APPVA said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We view this as an invasion of an individual’s privacy and is inappropriate in the context of Anzac Day.”
Yeah, well, if they’re so adamant about wearing the crap at public events, they get what they deserve. ANZMI says if they want to wear the medals on their right breast, that’s fine, but these dinguses want to wear them with their official awards.
“If you had to buy it, you didn’t earn it,” ANZMI said.
“They should be racked separately and worn on the right breast preferably below any NOK (next of kin) medals.”
Category: Military issues
I periodically saunter over to the ANZMI website to check out the latest ANZAC phonies and poseurs. ANZMI kicks ass and takes no prisoners when it comes to the phonies down-under!
I just visited the ribbon rack builder on Medals of America to refresh my memory of how idiotic “commemorative” medals can get. After this deployment I’ll already have 12 or 13 depending on the EOT award. Throw in commemoratives and another 10+ are added. Why anyone would want to walk around with 25 ribbons–half of which are redundant commemoratives–is beyond me.
It’s bad enough that we have so many gimme-type Service awards (Army Service, etc; Reserve components have their own gimmes as well). I like the look of an honestly earned ribbon/medal display on a wall. However, I think that uniforms look much better when kept minimal. No more than two or three rows–some of the older NCOs in TOG wore over five rows of medals alone, and their blouses looked crowded to say the least.
Hell, I’ve got enough “real” ones, and I stuck ’em in a drawer when I got out.
I’m having a hard time fathoming why anyone would want to look like a Nork general or Soviet WWII vet.
Commemorative medals = worthless bling garbage…
The MOPH has switched to Medals of America to get offical MOPH stuff. No problem there. I did notice though in the medals section all these medals from Vietnam, ie, (not a direct quote) The Defense of Vietnam Medal, Tet Offensive Medals, etc. I thought….what the heck are these things. I saw shadow boxes with tons of stuff in them I didn’t recognize and saw they were these kinds of medals. At first, having only been in a couple of years, I thought the Goverment must has issued these recently until I noticed the “Commemative” (sp?) then it hit me…shadow box inhancement medals. I thought…who the heck would order these things. Well..I guess many that want their rack to look like Audie Murphy and they are not wannabee enough to get real ones they didn’t earn. I think I would be laughing too hard to do anything if I saw someone wearing these in public. Something I hate to say here but will. I guess I first saw these at the museum in Toccoa where my bros and I went to visit this great place where the “Band of Brothers” began. Many of the original BoB’s that lived have shadow boxes there and many have these commemorative medals in them. I was a little disappointed but at least they didn’t wear them in public. I do recommend to any Airborne types a visit to this place and Currahee.
Honor and Courage
Anyone remember this post? http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=20316
Wasn’t it determined that she was wearing commemoratives?
If someone wants to pay for them, so be it, but I agree with the ANZMI guys that they should not be mixed with legitimate military awards while worn.
Don’t the ANZIs have anything like our AR 670-1 to tell them what to wear and how to wear it, and what not wear on their uniforms?
#7: According to the ANZMI website, the Aussie Defence Ministry does have guidance on the appropriate wearing of official and commemorative medals by veterans. But, not too surprisingly, the Aussie Govt/MoD does not really attempt to enforce the rules and guidance they have put out, so you have these ANZAC vets and vet groups commingling medals and otherwise wearing whatever the heck they want however they want to wear it…
“Vigilante Veterans”. I like the sound of that!