Irishgunner,
The 2012 Independent Medal Review conducted by Sir John Holmes, from 1 October 2014 the qualifying period for the medal without rosette was extended to 21 October 1982, the date Mount Pleasant airfield was finished. So the recipients would have faced no enemy action??
The whole thing is confusing? Consider the well-earned VC by Corporal Cameron Baird in Afghanistan who broke cover to attack the enemy and was sadly killed.
How does this compare to a man breaking cover and charging enemy lines over open ground, no cover and barbed wire hazards, with withering enemy machine gun fire and artillery fire? Of the entire battalion of over 800 men, less than 100 came back. And the survivors did this more than once. And many other regiments.
Of course, I'm talking about WWI. By modern standards don't all the men who went 'over the top' deserve a VC?