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SAS heroes may get jubilee VCs

Gordon Angus Mackinlay

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

I find this very bizarre in view of the British Prime Minister (Blair) not endorsing the award of two VCs to SAS soldiers for Afghanistan!

Yours,
Jock in SYdney

May 12, 2002 The Times (of London)

SAS heroes may get jubilee VCs
James Clark and Alastair McQueen

FOR the first time army chiefs are to ask the Queen to upgrade military
honours given to two SAS soldiers. They want the men to be awarded the
Victoria Cross, Britain‘s highest award for gallantry. The men‘s exploits,
one in the Falklands and the other in the "secret war" in Oman in the 1970s,
have passed into the elite regiment‘s history.

Although both were recommended for the VC, neither received the medal.
Senior military figures believe their membership of the secretive force
counted against them, and in an unprecedented move will ask the Queen to
mark her jubilee by making the awards.

Captain John Hamilton, 29, was the only SAS soldier to be killed in action
in the 1982 conflict with Argentina. He and another SAS man, signaller Roy
Fonseca, were ambushed by Argentine commandos on a hill above Bold Cove,
where 700 Argentinians were based.

Despite being outnumbered, Hamilton fought the Argentine troops for 15
minutes, being hit three times in an unsuccessful attempt to let Fonseca
escape. The Argentine officer in charge, Lieutenant Jose Duarte, was so
moved by Hamilton‘s bravery that he buried him with military honours and
later made sure senior British officers knew what the SAS soldier had done.
Hamilton was awarded a posthumous Military Cross. At the time the Queen
presented the medal to Hamilton‘s widow, she told her: "He earned this six
times over. I am only sorry I am not giving you something higher."

The second SAS man the Queen is to be asked to award a VC to was responsible
for one of the regiment‘s best-known acts of heroism, but was only mentioned
in dispatches because politicians thought awarding him a VC would draw
attention to the undercover war against communists in Oman.

Sergeant Talaiasi Labalaba, a Fijian, died after single-handedly holding off
a force of 400 communist insurgents during the battle of Mirbat in 1972.
During the battle Labalaba saw the three-man crew of a 25lb field gun killed
and, realising that the position he and his comrades held was about to be
overrun, he ran forward to man the gun. For six hours he loaded, aimed and
fired the weapon, enabling his comrades to fall back before finally
defeating the insurgents. Intelligence later revealed half the rebels had
been killed or wounded.

A senior SAS commander said last night: "We wanted them both to have VCs.
They gave their lives to save others."
 
Ladies and Gentlemen,

further to this. Having had a good chat with a few people it appears that the award of the VC, may run into problems.

The officer commanding (receved the Distinguished Service Order) and another soldier (also a Fijian received the Distinguished Conduct Medal) in both cases they had been put in for the VC.

This award of the will then give the NOK of these a legal right to apply for the VC to be awarded to them !!! Since this means money, ie the VC graturity, it is doubful whether Treasury will accept it!

Yours,
Jock in SYdney
 
The VC gratuity isn‘t very much, and in fact is only a few hundred pounds.

I suspect the reasons, as usual, remain chiefly political.

It‘s a shame. In 1899 one could earn a VC simply by risking your life in the most extreme and dire circumstances to assist your mates or vanquish the enemy, all the while enduring the worst peril.

These days, it seems you have to actually buy the farm to get it. Not to say those that died in 1982 earning their VC‘s didn‘t deserve it, but the VC wasn‘t made just for those who died doing what nearly everyone else was doing too.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The VC graturity (which is tax free) works out at US dollars 3, 120.

This in Australia works out at approximately 6,400 dollars, which is equal to 256 slabs (24x375mils cans) of beer, that works out at 16 (and a little bit) cans of beer a day at 4.75 degree proof, which works out at a lot of beer!

Being serious, whilst politics have a lot to do with so also does finance. If in both cases the VC is awarded the graturity is backdated to time of action (and again is tax free), and the graturity is paid to the immediate dependent next of kin ie wife until their death. The British Treasury is always loath to pay money out to military receients.

Yours,
Jock in Sydney
 
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