Following a 22-year career during which I received my Long Service and Good Conduct (LSCG) medal I rejoined on full-time reserve service (FTRS) and I’m currently in my 12th year.
My administration officer said I had qualified for the Volunteer Reserve Service Medal (VRSM) which reservists receive at their ten-year point.
My application went to the Medal Office and it was approved but I was then informed that it had been delayed by the roll out of the King’s Coronation Medal.
After I chased this up the Medal Office declared I no longer qualified for the VRSM due to 2024DIN09-002, which says FTRS personnel can only receive the award if they’d originally served as a reservist. If they haven’t, a bar for the LSGC is awarded instead.
This is a massive insult and sheer discrimination to all serving FTRS who are not being equally recognised. I have submitted formal complaints to the DIN author and the medal complaints department and have only received an automated reply.
SSgt Michelle Patterson, RA
Lt Col Tony Frank, SO1 Conditions of Service, Personnel Directorate, Army Headquarters, replies: To be considered for the LSGC medal personnel must be serving in the regular forces and have completed 15 years of unblemished eligible service from the date of attestation.
Any entry on a disciplinary record will automatically lead to a delay of 15 years for the award.
Clasps are available for each further period of ten years’ regular service. This should not be understated – I congratulate you on being a recipient.
To qualify for the VRSM you must be currently engaged or have previously completed a period of volunteer reserve service on or after April 1, 1999 and have compiled ten years of continuous service.
Within this period, nine efficiency markers must have been achieved. Clasps are available for additional periods of five years of continuous efficient service.
A key requisite is volunteer service, defined as volunteers who accept an annual training commitment and a liability for call-out for permanent service.
While FTRS service can be counted towards the VRSM where the individual is also a volunteer reserve, in cases such as yours, where that isn’t the case, qualifying days count towards the award of a bar for your LSGC medal only.
Importantly, the DIN you reference is a policy clarification, rather than a change in policy.
The Medal Office is aware that the VRSM had previously been awarded incorrectly to personnel in your exact position.
As these were awarded in good faith there is no appetite to recover them, but it would not be appropriate to continue to award these medals where we are aware the qualifying criteria has not been met.
The repurchase of service family accommodation (SFA) from the Japanese financier Nomura Securities (Annington Homes) is most welcome.
In your May issue, Phil Riley, DIO’s director of accommodation, was probably right in saying that the sell-off in 1996 of almost the entire stock of SFA was a “disastrous contract”.
Anyone looking in an estate agent’s window at the time of the sell-off would have found the unit sale price of £31,000 laughably cheap.
But such contractual incompetence is not the full story. The army, which sets great store by accompanied service and patch life, occupied the vast majority of the SFA and seemingly had the most to lose.
However, it also wanted the attack helicopter programme, which the Treasury declared unaffordable without the receipts from the housing sell-off. Faced with that choice, what would you have done?
Lt Col (Retd) Nick Larkin, RE
