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    Wessel Gordon

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    Posts posted by Wessel Gordon

    1. During the broadcast of the above event at one stage a four-star general walked out on the carpet. I have no idea who it was but he was in full uniform. The thing that struck me as odd was that he was wearing quite an impressive ribbon bar instead of his medals.

      My question is: given the solemnity of the occasion wouldn't it be fitting for any soldier (much less a full general) to wear their medals instead of the ribbon bar?

      I'm from South Africa so not familiar with the appropriate dress-code for foreign militaries. Any comment will be appreciated.

       

    2. Paul,

      Thanks for the example.

      If I understand the last sentence of the middle paragraph correctly if a soldier enlisted on his 16th birthday and the legal enlistment age was 18 (not sure about the actual age requirement so using this as an example) he wouldn't be given pension for the first 2 years of service? If this soldier did take part in Waterloo before turning 18 was he entitled to add the 2 ''bonus years''?

      In this example the soldier would obviously have been born in 1799.

       

       

    3. Another angle to consider on this is countries that number their medals instead of naming them as is the case with South African military medals. I admit it's not done on police medals here as far as I know but it's possible and unless you have the numbers of all prior or current serving police men/women finding out if a numbered medal was awarded to a female is mission impossible unless there's other documents or information to substantiate it.

    4. I'm in South Africa as well and can honestly say I never paid attention to any policeman's nameplate although if I see a policeman or SANDF member I always check their rank since I am more interested in that.

      My usual reaction in seeing a police officer is usually ''oh crap...did I do something illegal I can't remember?'' Although I used to be friends with the commanding officer of the Kimberley SAPS which was lieutenant-colonel before he quit.

       

    5. To be honest I'm nervous to apply any chemicals to a medal since I don't know the metallic composition of each medal and an unfortunately bad reaction can ruin the medal. 

      I contacted a medal-mounter and he is willing to clean it for R 50 or about $ 3.50. The biggest expense would be courier cost but I guess that's better than trying it DIY style and ruining an otherwise well preserved medal.

    6. PREM,

      You're right, it's not patina. The color and distribution of the ''stain'' isn't consistent with what one would expect with patina. I would expect the patina after 74 years to be more or less evenly distributed over the medal and cover BOTH obverse and reverse...this occurs only on the reverse so I'm thinking it's some kind of glue. If it was indeed patina I wouldn't even consider cleaning it since that would destroy some of the medal's ''story''.

      Question is: what's the best way to clean it?

       

       

    7. I regularly read up on US generals on Wikipedia to fill some down time and I noticed that in nearly all cases the generals (regardless of the branch of the military they served in) started as second lieutenant and got promoted to first lieutenant and then to captain after exactly two and four years service respectively but promotion from captain to major take anything from five years or more. Promotions from major upwards seems to be unpredictable so I guess that's down to the need for that particular officer's skills at a certain level at a certain time or if if there's a post to be filled. Obviously this only apply to peacetime promotions since it's blatantly obvious from my reading that officers promoted during the World Wars tended to revert to their pre-war rank after the conflict was over.

      Is this required ''time on grade/rank'' or is there another reason for this bigger gap?

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