At my first Advice Surgery in South Northamptonshire I met a Major in the British Army who had brought with him his considerable case of medals which he showed me with enormous pride.
What he wanted to talk about was the fact that he and others had been awarded the Bronze Star Medal by the American Government but was unable to wear it because the Ministry of Defence required a request from the US Embassy for permission to grant the award.
After extensive correspondence by the Major over several years he was still no further forward. I was astonished that this courageous man was unable to wear a medal, awarded in the defence of our country, because of bureaucratic inefficiency!
I wrote to the Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox, asking for his help.
The Major emailed me within days to tell me he had received notification from the Honours Secretariat that he will be receiving an invitation to Buckingham Palace and will be formally awarded the medal by Her Majesty the Queen.
Definitely one of the highlights of my first month as a new Member of Parliament….
( 1 comments ) Tags: Armed Forces, British Army, Bronze Star Medal, USA
Comment by PHILIP GIVEN on July 30, 2010 at 7:11 pm
I feel angry that the MOD must pay for it’s own update of trident thus scrapping other projects surely if we’ve got £800 million to bale out the banks what’s £20 billion I’d be happy to pay an extra penny in the tax if it meant the Armed Forces could have the best kit cause at the moment we’re a laughing stock David Cameron should be embarassed.