Aussie slacker just makes the grade for a medal

[bratwurstdimsum]

Guys,

I opened this one up on the bios forum and I wanted to ask, how does one get service medals for such a poor record. I know he eventually went to "war" but this guy spent most of his service life in Jail!

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru....php?p=3096965

[Mark Gibson]

He still served his country and is just as deserving as the next man, which is more than I can say for many people no matter what nation. As for being a slacker, I don't know what he did but he still saw active service.

Mark

[bratwurstdimsum]

sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful. I was just surprised that he was allowed to serve overseas at all given that it appears he went so far against the institution. I can't help but think of his mates that went to fight the Japanese years earlier while he was in jail because he was AWOL.

Still you are right, he served and thats exactly what these awards were designed for.

[byterock]

We sort of look at this and go 'WOW' these days but it was a little different back then.

I had a chance to review a number of files years ago in the JAG here in Ottawa and you would see 60days, to 90days in the klink for such grievous offenses as

'Late on parade'

'Displaying lack of military courtesy'

'Kit out of order'

This last was one that stuck with me. The guy got 7days in the klink and 60 CBed for having a 'dirty spoon' in his pack during an inspection.

This was WWII and some of the WWI files guys were court marshaled for what today would be rather minor if not totally ignored today.

Best one I ran across, was a 'Engineer' who miss-wired a light bulb and

'caused damage to HM property over 6d'

was sentenced to 180days of hard labour.

If you were in a regiment you usually got off with lighter punishments but in the Corps units, other rear area units and in garrison you usually got the prescribed punishment or more.

The RCN had particular problems and punishments were usually less severe by you got punished much more often and for very minor things' One that stood out in my mind were

'Having Dirty Hands while leaving ship'
2days stoppage of pay plus 1 week stoppage of rum ration

'Leaving mess in an unsailorly dress"
3days stoppage of pay and loss of two weeks of liberty

With stuff like this going on one could see why there were victory riots in Halifax on VE day.

[Ciaran Byrne]

It was slightly different during WWI in the British sectors. If you read Frank Richard's "Old Soldiers Never Die" he claims that many men had all their field punishments quashed when they performed paticularly well. On many occasions he states that men were more than deserving of the DCM in the field but simply had their field punishment quashed as a "reward". He also remarks that he hardly ever saw anyone taken away to serve their punishment, and almost all did theirs in the field or just behind the lines.

[bratwurstdimsum]

byterock,

I see your point about harsh penalties for minor infractions, but this guy was AWOL for days and weeks repeatedly. He was not only fined his pay but put under close arrest and thrown into military jail for months after being put through DCM (I assume that is a court marshall). (click through that link I have in my first post for more details of his military record)

The only excuse I can attribute to this is if he was draftee and was psycologically unfit for duty, which, should have come out in a medical?

Sounds like he just didn't like being told what to do!

[Adam H]

I'm not sure I would agree that this chap was "as deserving as the next man" but he did show up, and served for the time required in the geographic location required to earn these SERVICE/CAMPAIGN medals. These really were just for showing up and doing your job.

Not to take away from the efforts of many brave men and women who were never decorated and no doubt deserved to be...

As for being AWOL...10 minutes or 10 days...it's the same charge