Bluesman

I'm not asking about awards, medals, that sort of thing. But in the old mold of a commander mentioning the especially gallant conduct, brilliant leadership, technical mastery, etc. of one of his subordinates that particularly caught his eye while in action, have you ever been singled out for recognition to Higher?

Oh, and by 'action', it does not necessarily have to be combat.

In my own case, I've never been under fire, but I caught the wing commander's attention by writing an intel report just before OIF kicked off, and he wrote a paragraph about it to the Air Staff. (I just re-read it; it's in some computer files I went through after doing a vanity search for my name in a huge classified database.) THAT sort of thing.

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Bluesman

You know, I placed this in the wrong forum. Mods, please move this to the Field Mess.

zraver

Once at Irwin I took on a MRC with an AT-4 atwest and a pocket full of reloads. The judges finally had to throw an arty sim at me, I was getting in to close and low for the Sheridan vismods to target me. Got a couple of the BMP's and was getting ready to start safety killing them. Got an AAM for it, looking back I am lucky I wasn't run over.

Bluesman

THAT is COOL, buddy. But did you catch the boss's eye? Did he talk to anybody about the incident?

SnowLeopard

That's certainly the kind of thing one is likely to know, to remember, right?

That said, no, probably not.

But as a shoreside USN Security Officer (Provost Marshall), two things. First of all, the HQ at the Admiral level probably at least knew my name. That kind of 'attention' just happens in police work. Secondly, when the Captain was turning in his brag sheet for his fitrep, he wanted the accomplishments of his department heads, of which I was one, because our accomplishments for the base were accomplishments of his command.
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("What did you think you were doing, charging ahead like that? You looked like a brash young lieutenant who wanted to get his name mentioned in dispatches."--(wtte), Peachy Carnehan, "The Man Who Would be King")

lemontree

In The Indian Army, like the British Army, a 'Mentioned in Dispatches' is actually military decoration. In the IA in particular it is the 4th highest decoration for an achievement in war/combat.

I am a humble recipient of the "Chief of Army Staff Commendation" (COAS Commendation) during COIN ops in J&K.

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Cheers!...on the rocks!!

SnowLeopard

Oh, WELL, in that case, no comparison!
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("Never mind....."--Gilna Rayner, (wtte), "Saturday Night Live")

sappersgt

I don't know about dispatches but I did get my name in the local newspaper (the Low Velder). Some farmer backed a trailer full of cows into a railroad chlorine tanker. I got "volunteered" to handle the resultant spill making me somewhat of a local celebrity for maybe a week.

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Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
(Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)

astralis

i seriously hope you played that local celebrity status out for all it was worth...holy crap (pun intended).

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Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

SnowLeopard

Not meaning to distract from things, but as life goes on, I learn to be careful of what I can do. The person you may curse in traffic today maybe someone you will lead tomarrow.

This is not necessarily an issue of being in the military; rather, it is an issue of maturity. The person I may dish today, asking for help but I am too tired, maybe a student tomarrow. Maybe I can hope they are not like me, remembering where I met someone before, but that is hoping a lot.

In short, how you act day to day is vital for if you are ever anyone "famous", they will dig up such data about you.
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("I don't know you, but you ..... I never forget a face. It is you, isn't it ..... Mr. CHECKOV! ..... I never thought to see your face again."--Khan, (wtte), ST:TWOK)

Elbmek

Not mentioned in despatches but commended a couple of times. Mind you, I was mentioned on charge sheets (252's and 121's) on two or three occasions too!

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Never lie, then you have nothing to try and remember.

sappersgt

It was good for a few pints at the pub for sure!

Actually it wasn't that kind of spill, here's how it played out. I rushed out to the scene with a fire truck and some fitters (mechanics). There were about a hundred men under a Leftenant already there keeping everyone away and evacuating the nearby houses. I had the locomotive engineers pull the train down track to where I had spied a low spot. I then set the fire truck to spray the fogger nozzle over the leaking tanker car to keep the chlorine gas cloud from drifting over the town.

The place I stopped the train had a conduit (aqueduct?) leading to the other side of the railway embankment and away from the stream parallelling the tracks which ran into the towns water source. I had the men dig a trench for the now diluted chlorine and water mixture to run under the embankment and into the previously reconnoitered depression. I then had the men build a sandbag dam at one end about a meter high and ten meters long to hold the runoff. This gave me a holding area about eighty meters long and almost two meters deep.

Once successfully accomplishing containment the fitters and I went to work attacking the broken valve on the tanker car. I had one MOPP suit, two gas masks and one DR-40 from the fire truck. It was high summer in Africa and unbelievably hot. We rotated men in the suit as no one could last more than a few minutes until collapsing.

It was not until we finally got the valve shut off did I discover I am allergic to chlorine. Having difficulty breathing they got me to the hospital just as I went into anaphylactic shock. I swelled up like the Michelin man. I couldn't button the sleeves on my uniform blouse my arms were so swollen. I was in hospital for a week. That's where I met my future wife.

I received a commendation in my file and an invitation to Sapper school due to "meritorious service". Sappers were usually required to serve a year with the troops before attending, in my case they made an exception.