On 09Mar2017 1358, Jeff Zeitlin wrote:

> What I'd like from the collective: If you've taken your nation's
> shilling, or know people who have, and know how their service worked,
> I'd like to know what you know about the forms of recognition at high
> levels that your nation's services give - medals/ribbons, Mention in
> Dispatches, The Grand Poohbah's Nose-Tweak, whatever. If it's easy to
> get the recognition (the service likes to give them out), I want to
> know that; if it's difficult (not even the Dictator-for-Life gets
> three rows of fruit salad on his uniform), I want to know that. I want
> to know what sort of things the service gives out recognition for, and
> who decides (i.e., at what level is final approval?). I want to know
> what sorts of ceremonies accompany various types of recognition. And
> all that.

I was an enlisted soldier in the RNZ Army in the early 90s. As such I
didn't pay a lot of attention to how officers were recognised, other
than to note that a lot more of thier awards for things like long
service were automatic, while those for enlisteds tended to require both
the service and recommendation. This was a particular sore point when it
came to long service awards, especially as the officers needed to spend
less time in to get theirs.

Awards for campaigns and such were in the form of ribbons, and while you
got them automatically for having been sent to that theatre, in the 80s
and 90s there weren't a lot of opportunities to get them - UN
peacekeeping/observer missions were about it, aside from those few
support personnel who went to Iraq. There have been more this century,
though.

Awards for bravery, etc., are not very common, though some have been
awarded for actions in Afghanistan, including a Victoria Cross (nowadays
the NZ Victoria Cross is it's own thing, though it's identical to the
original and has the same requirements). There is no equivalent to the
USA's Purple Heart.

Major awards like the VC are given in a ceremony by the Governor-General
acting for the Queen. Other awards are given on parade by one's
commanding officer. Exactly which one (company, battalion, etc.) depends
on how significant the award is.

Awards, or even just the ribbons, are seldom worn being reserved for
very formal occasions only.

I wish I could go into more details, but they just weren't very relevant
to us.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief