dateSun, Apr 12, 2009 at 10:08 AM
subject ANY COMMENTS ?
mailed-bygmail.com
I tend to agree with the views expressed by VAdm PS Das in the last piece below. Somehow, this whole thing about returning of Service Medals, going on for a while now, was not feeling quite right.
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--- On Sun, 12/4/09, PVS Satish
From: PVS Satish
Subject: Re: ANY COMMENTS ?
To: fivefivezero@googlegroups.com
Date: Sunday, 12 April, 2009, 12:15 PM
The value of rewards/awards given for deeds done are always subject to perception- both of the receiver and the giver. How about looking at this another way, in the civvie street you almost always get a bonus or a promotion for individual performance and/or organisational performance. From this comparison we come to two questions...
(a) WHAT CAN WE GIVE FOR THE SUPREME SACRIFICE. considering that the armed forces may call for the supreme sacrifice as a part of duty how do we compensate? Is there a value for life, of course some insurance firms audaciously or practically (as some people think) do establish value, but not withstanding let us assume that life is invaluable. So any compensation given to the family of the deceased is inadequate. and yet all the forces can give is probably a posthumous medal and some insurance benefits...sometimes even that comes with difficulty. I am sure to the families of the deceased the medal is what represents the lost soul "INVALUABLE". As for those who show valour and courage in war/ actual action if you please, and survive...they
also have presumably by most standards earned their medals..right simple
(b) WHAT CAN WE GIVE FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE IN REAR GUARD ACTION/PEACE TIME. As for those who have not had the fortune of facing real action and have only been tasked to take care of rear guard action...should not the service also reward them for their tireless work behind the scenes (a classic example is the cipher specialists in the second world war). Now the real poser is how do we compensate real dedicated work during normal peace time...I remember the old saying "Extraordinary people do not do extraordinary things, they just do ordinary things in an extraordinary way".
In sum i believe that we need to value our medals...50 yrs of independence so it was free? wonder if we would have got it if we were either not serving or were not free then. Service in Port Blair/hard service conditions, probably another incentive for people to serve in conditions generally perceived hostile (let us remember there was time when one did not get fresh milk there!!)
Fraud medals are when you wear a medal for deed that you did not do...the recent misdeeds in the army/RR are examples .
We cannot afford to deride the few acknowledgements that we do get. What we need to do is to also fight for suitable monetary compensation as well.
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Satish
/4/12 Atul Bhatia
I walked into my dad's house one day in uniform, wearing five ribbons. He, the old fauji, looked at them, grinned, and said "all fraud"! Well, I couldn't help but agree - there was the nine-year long service medal (received by the simple act of having served nine years), the 50-years-of-independence medal (because I happened to be serving when India celebrated 50 years of freedom), the 20-years long service medal (to show that I've qualified for pension), the Andaman-and-Nicobar service medal (I forget its real name, but it has to do with hard service) that I earned by staying more than a year in a beautiful place with sandy beaches and crystal clear water, earning 12.5% over-and-above my basic. Finally, there was the Op Vijay medal, which I earned by patrolling Mumbai High for 15 days in an unarmed Islander while proxy war raged in the north.
Some of us who do well in service will go on to get VSMs, AVSMs and PVSMs, no doubt through dedicated hard work. But the question on my mind is, was what we did to earn all these medals any different than what other - non-service - people did? Take for example the A&N medal; we went there, spent a year or two, and earned a medal. What about all the people who have spent their entire lives there? Or the long-service medals; hundreds of government employees spend as long in their respective services.
Dr Desmond Morris (of 'Manwatching' fame) has a very interesting take on this. He says that people with real power wear no medals - they simply shift the burden of wearing them onto their subordinate staff. In the book, there was this very nice picture of a US President (Nixon, I think) riding standing up in an open limousine, wearing a simple black suit with a dark tie. Surrounding him were motorcycle outriders wearing their finest ceremonial uniform, bedecked with tens of medals...
Atul Bhatia
