In going over the various rules and regulations and such (and correcting
booboos from long ago) it occurred to me that the medal array and uniform in *Identified* may not have been as wrong as many of us have assumed for so long. *Identified* was the pilot and Anderson and the crew would have taken pains to get things 'okay' at the very least. (And it's not like the US government takes pains to hide things like medal requirements and uniforming regulations - one call to the PR person at the nearest US airbase would have gotten them more info than they probably wanted to know. And we don't know what information they had to work with from filming Doppelganger.) The original concept of Straker (according to various sources, notably interviews with Bishop) was that he was a desk-jockey - the irritable guy giving orders from his underground office. It was only after Bishop had been in the role for a bit, and there were some cast and character changes, that Straker was expanded into a major character. So the character AS ORIGINALLY CONCEIVED may well have been an older man. Now the ribbon array on Straker's uniform in *Identified* is consistent for USAF officer of 40 or so. The few placement issues on the ribbons can easily be explained by the costume department getting their info from a source that wasn't as accurate as it could have been or somebody in costuming being a little careless (maybe RAF ribbon priority is a little different from USAF and it threw them off. After this long nobody is going to remember, assuming they're even alive.) The Master Pilot's Wings badge goes perfectly with the rest of the array. That particular badge requires 15 years as a rated US military pilot. (Note: MILITARY pilot.) Other clues from the array are: the Silver Star - that is a COMBAT medal. Therefore Straker saw combat and performed gallantly and if the performance was as a pilot, then he was an Ace. Another clue to his career - the Korean service and UN service medals. That's simple - he served in Korea in the required time frame. So if canon is defined as what appears in the show - then the above *must* be considered canon. It's in the show. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] |
I always thought those ribbons were quite accurate. A couple are out of
order, like you say, but not horrendously. I always found the Purple Heart to be especially telling. The only odd choice is the Good Conduct Medal - awarded to NON-COMs only. It would suggest Straker came up through the ranks rather than going through the Academy or an ROTC program. Hmm, does the RAF have a good conduct medal and is it awarded to officers? That would explain a lot. Hang on, I'll go look ...... Hmmmmm, an RAF officer could be awarded the medal (which is a LONG SERVICE/GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL combined), if he spent a certain amount of time 'in the ranks' and only after 18 years of service - so maybe they WERE trying to suggest he started as enlisted. So, even if he enlisted at 18, he would have had to be at least 36 to have an LS&GCM (RAF) ... Y Deborah Rorabaugh wrote: > In going over the various rules and regulations and such (and correcting > booboos from long ago) it occurred to me that the medal array and uniform in > *Identified* may not have been as wrong as many of us have assumed for so > long. > > *Identified* was the pilot and Anderson and the crew would have taken pains > to get things 'okay' at the very least. (And it's not like the US government > takes pains to hide things like medal requirements and uniforming > regulations - one call to the PR person at the nearest US airbase would have > gotten them more info than they probably wanted to know. And we don't know > what information they had to work with from filming Doppelganger.) > > The original concept of Straker (according to various sources, notably > interviews with Bishop) was that he was a desk-jockey - the irritable guy > giving orders from his underground office. It was only after Bishop had been > in the role for a bit, and there were some cast and character changes, that > Straker was expanded into a major character. So the character AS ORIGINALLY > CONCEIVED may well have been an older man. > > Now the ribbon array on Straker's uniform in *Identified* is consistent for > USAF officer of 40 or so. The few placement issues on the ribbons can easily > be explained by the costume department getting their info from a source that > wasn't as accurate as it could have been or somebody in costuming being a > little careless (maybe RAF ribbon priority is a little different from USAF > and it threw them off. After this long nobody is going to remember, assuming > they're even alive.) > > The Master Pilot's Wings badge goes perfectly with the rest of the array. > That particular badge requires 15 years as a rated US military pilot. (Note: > MILITARY pilot.) Other clues from the array are: the Silver Star - that is > a COMBAT medal. Therefore Straker saw combat and performed gallantly and if > the performance was as a pilot, then he was an Ace. Another clue to his > career - the Korean service and UN service medals. That's simple - he served > in Korea in the required time frame. > > So if canon is defined as what appears in the show - then the above *must* > be considered canon. It's in the show. -- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Yuchtar zantai-Klaan | [hidden email] I am not a number! I am a FREE FAN! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "An apple a day, keeps the, uh ... No, never mind." -- Doctor Who =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= http://www.yuchtar.com/ |
In reply to this post by Deborah Rorabaugh-2
Ooooh, and I was just looking over my interpretation of Straker's ribbons in Identified and I made one obvious mistake - I erroneously identified the Bronze Star as the AF Organizational Excellence Award. (rolling eyes) But then I was looking at that Longevity Award. That is awarded for four years of service and he has two, although, it looks like there is another hole where a second oak leaf cluster may have fallen off. This means he has been in service for at LEAST 8 to 11 years with the one OLC and 12 to 15 years if there was a second OLC. So, he's at the very least 30 years old (if commissioned at age 22) and could be 37 - or older if commissioned at an age older than 22.
And the only one out of order is the Purple Heart. This is kind of fun looking up all this stuff. :o) Y -----Original Message----- >From: Yuchtar <[hidden email]> > >I always thought those ribbons were quite accurate. A couple are out of >order, like you say, but not horrendously. I always found the Purple >Heart to be especially telling. The only odd choice is the Good Conduct >Medal - awarded to NON-COMs only. It would suggest Straker came up >through the ranks rather than going through the Academy or an ROTC program. > >Hmm, does the RAF have a good conduct medal and is it awarded to >officers? That would explain a lot. Hang on, I'll go look ...... > >Hmmmmm, an RAF officer could be awarded the medal (which is a LONG >SERVICE/GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL combined), if he spent a certain amount of >time 'in the ranks' and only after 18 years of service - so maybe they >WERE trying to suggest he started as enlisted. So, even if he enlisted >at 18, he would have had to be at least 36 to have an LS&GCM (RAF) ... > >Y |
In reply to this post by Yuchtar-2
But Straker was American, so what are your thoughts on an RAF award? Or am I missing something, coming late into the conversation?
--- On Wed, 8/17/11, Yuchtar <[hidden email]> wrote: From: Yuchtar <[hidden email]> Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker To: [hidden email] Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 12:21 AM I always thought those ribbons were quite accurate. A couple are out of order, like you say, but not horrendously. I always found the Purple Heart to be especially telling. The only odd choice is the Good Conduct Medal - awarded to NON-COMs only. It would suggest Straker came up through the ranks rather than going through the Academy or an ROTC program. Hmm, does the RAF have a good conduct medal and is it awarded to officers? That would explain a lot. Hang on, I'll go look ...... Hmmmmm, an RAF officer could be awarded the medal (which is a LONG SERVICE/GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL combined), if he spent a certain amount of time 'in the ranks' and only after 18 years of service - so maybe they WERE trying to suggest he started as enlisted. So, even if he enlisted at 18, he would have had to be at least 36 to have an LS&GCM (RAF) ... Y Deborah Rorabaugh wrote: > In going over the various rules and regulations and such (and correcting > booboos from long ago) it occurred to me that the medal array and uniform in > *Identified* may not have been as wrong as many of us have assumed for so > long. > > *Identified* was the pilot and Anderson and the crew would have taken pains > to get things 'okay' at the very least. (And it's not like the US government > takes pains to hide things like medal requirements and uniforming > regulations - one call to the PR person at the nearest US airbase would have > gotten them more info than they probably wanted to know. And we don't know > what information they had to work with from filming Doppelganger.) > > The original concept of Straker (according to various sources, notably > interviews with Bishop) was that he was a desk-jockey - the irritable guy > giving orders from his underground office. It was only after Bishop had been > in the role for a bit, and there were some cast and character changes, that > Straker was expanded into a major character. So the character AS ORIGINALLY > CONCEIVED may well have been an older man. > > Now the ribbon array on Straker's uniform in *Identified* is consistent for > USAF officer of 40 or so. The few placement issues on the ribbons can easily > be explained by the costume department getting their info from a source that > wasn't as accurate as it could have been or somebody in costuming being a > little careless (maybe RAF ribbon priority is a little different from USAF > and it threw them off. After this long nobody is going to remember, assuming > they're even alive.) > > The Master Pilot's Wings badge goes perfectly with the rest of the array. > That particular badge requires 15 years as a rated US military pilot. (Note: > MILITARY pilot.) Other clues from the array are: the Silver Star - that is > a COMBAT medal. Therefore Straker saw combat and performed gallantly and if > the performance was as a pilot, then he was an Ace. Another clue to his > career - the Korean service and UN service medals. That's simple - he served > in Korea in the required time frame. > > So if canon is defined as what appears in the show - then the above *must* > be considered canon. It's in the show. -- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Yuchtar zantai-Klaan | [hidden email] I am not a number! I am a FREE FAN! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "An apple a day, keeps the, uh ... No, never mind." -- Doctor Who =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= http://www.yuchtar.com/ ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] |
I think the question has to do with whether or not the RAF rules are
different enough that the costume people might have gotten confused as to whether or not Straker would have had this medal at all or what it meant. Since the RAF version IS allowed for officers, they may well have made the assumption that the USAF version was allowed for USAF officers as well. One of the places I find myself getting tripped up on is that while the two services are VERY similar, the differences are also very large. (And the British government makes things hard to find, which doesn't help. People are actually invoking Freedom of Information just to get the British military uniforming regs openly published.) _____ From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of wmc Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 8:03 AM To: [hidden email] Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker But Straker was American, so what are your thoughts on an RAF award? Or am I missing something, coming late into the conversation? --- On Wed, 8/17/11, Yuchtar <[hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> > wrote: From: Yuchtar <[hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> > Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker To: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 12:21 AM I always thought those ribbons were quite accurate. A couple are out of order, like you say, but not horrendously. I always found the Purple Heart to be especially telling. The only odd choice is the Good Conduct Medal - awarded to NON-COMs only. It would suggest Straker came up through the ranks rather than going through the Academy or an ROTC program. Hmm, does the RAF have a good conduct medal and is it awarded to officers? That would explain a lot. Hang on, I'll go look ...... Hmmmmm, an RAF officer could be awarded the medal (which is a LONG SERVICE/GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL combined), if he spent a certain amount of time 'in the ranks' and only after 18 years of service - so maybe they WERE trying to suggest he started as enlisted. So, even if he enlisted at 18, he would have had to be at least 36 to have an LS&GCM (RAF) ... Y Deborah Rorabaugh wrote: > In going over the various rules and regulations and such (and correcting > booboos from long ago) it occurred to me that the medal array and uniform in > *Identified* may not have been as wrong as many of us have assumed for so > long. > > *Identified* was the pilot and Anderson and the crew would have taken pains > to get things 'okay' at the very least. (And it's not like the US government > takes pains to hide things like medal requirements and uniforming > regulations - one call to the PR person at the nearest US airbase would have > gotten them more info than they probably wanted to know. And we don't know > what information they had to work with from filming Doppelganger.) > > The original concept of Straker (according to various sources, notably > interviews with Bishop) was that he was a desk-jockey - the irritable guy > giving orders from his underground office. It was only after Bishop had been > in the role for a bit, and there were some cast and character changes, that > Straker was expanded into a major character. So the character AS ORIGINALLY > CONCEIVED may well have been an older man. > > Now the ribbon array on Straker's uniform in *Identified* is consistent for > USAF officer of 40 or so. The few placement issues on the ribbons can easily > be explained by the costume department getting their info from a source that > wasn't as accurate as it could have been or somebody in costuming being a > little careless (maybe RAF ribbon priority is a little different from USAF > and it threw them off. After this long nobody is going to remember, assuming > they're even alive.) > > The Master Pilot's Wings badge goes perfectly with the rest of the array. > That particular badge requires 15 years as a rated US military pilot. (Note: > MILITARY pilot.) Other clues from the array are: the Silver Star - that is > a COMBAT medal. Therefore Straker saw combat and performed gallantly and if > the performance was as a pilot, then he was an Ace. Another clue to his > career - the Korean service and UN service medals. That's simple - he served > in Korea in the required time frame. > > So if canon is defined as what appears in the show - then the above *must* > be considered canon. It's in the show. -- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Yuchtar zantai-Klaan | [hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> I am not a number! I am a FREE FAN! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "An apple a day, keeps the, uh ... No, never mind." -- Doctor Who =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= http://www.yuchtar.com/ ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] |
Oh I get it, yes.
It is always interesting when folks think that the US and Britain are a lot alike. Well, maybe in the 16th century, but we are VERY different peoples. Nothing wrong with that. --- On Wed, 8/17/11, Deborah Rorabaugh <[hidden email]> wrote: From: Deborah Rorabaugh <[hidden email]> Subject: RE: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker To: [hidden email] Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 8:17 AM I think the question has to do with whether or not the RAF rules are different enough that the costume people might have gotten confused as to whether or not Straker would have had this medal at all or what it meant. Since the RAF version IS allowed for officers, they may well have made the assumption that the USAF version was allowed for USAF officers as well. One of the places I find myself getting tripped up on is that while the two services are VERY similar, the differences are also very large. (And the British government makes things hard to find, which doesn't help. People are actually invoking Freedom of Information just to get the British military uniforming regs openly published.) _____ From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of wmc Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 8:03 AM To: [hidden email] Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker But Straker was American, so what are your thoughts on an RAF award? Or am I missing something, coming late into the conversation? --- On Wed, 8/17/11, Yuchtar <[hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> > wrote: From: Yuchtar <[hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> > Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker To: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 12:21 AM I always thought those ribbons were quite accurate. A couple are out of order, like you say, but not horrendously. I always found the Purple Heart to be especially telling. The only odd choice is the Good Conduct Medal - awarded to NON-COMs only. It would suggest Straker came up through the ranks rather than going through the Academy or an ROTC program. Hmm, does the RAF have a good conduct medal and is it awarded to officers? That would explain a lot. Hang on, I'll go look ...... Hmmmmm, an RAF officer could be awarded the medal (which is a LONG SERVICE/GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL combined), if he spent a certain amount of time 'in the ranks' and only after 18 years of service - so maybe they WERE trying to suggest he started as enlisted. So, even if he enlisted at 18, he would have had to be at least 36 to have an LS&GCM (RAF) ... Y Deborah Rorabaugh wrote: > In going over the various rules and regulations and such (and correcting > booboos from long ago) it occurred to me that the medal array and uniform in > *Identified* may not have been as wrong as many of us have assumed for so > long. > > *Identified* was the pilot and Anderson and the crew would have taken pains > to get things 'okay' at the very least. (And it's not like the US government > takes pains to hide things like medal requirements and uniforming > regulations - one call to the PR person at the nearest US airbase would have > gotten them more info than they probably wanted to know. And we don't know > what information they had to work with from filming Doppelganger.) > > The original concept of Straker (according to various sources, notably > interviews with Bishop) was that he was a desk-jockey - the irritable guy > giving orders from his underground office. It was only after Bishop had been > in the role for a bit, and there were some cast and character changes, that > Straker was expanded into a major character. So the character AS ORIGINALLY > CONCEIVED may well have been an older man. > > Now the ribbon array on Straker's uniform in *Identified* is consistent for > USAF officer of 40 or so. The few placement issues on the ribbons can easily > be explained by the costume department getting their info from a source that > wasn't as accurate as it could have been or somebody in costuming being a > little careless (maybe RAF ribbon priority is a little different from USAF > and it threw them off. After this long nobody is going to remember, assuming > they're even alive.) > > The Master Pilot's Wings badge goes perfectly with the rest of the array. > That particular badge requires 15 years as a rated US military pilot. (Note: > MILITARY pilot.) Other clues from the array are: the Silver Star - that is > a COMBAT medal. Therefore Straker saw combat and performed gallantly and if > the performance was as a pilot, then he was an Ace. Another clue to his > career - the Korean service and UN service medals. That's simple - he served > in Korea in the required time frame. > > So if canon is defined as what appears in the show - then the above *must* > be considered canon. It's in the show. -- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Yuchtar zantai-Klaan | [hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> I am not a number! I am a FREE FAN! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "An apple a day, keeps the, uh ... No, never mind." -- Doctor Who =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= http://www.yuchtar.com/ ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] |
In reply to this post by Deborah Rorabaugh-2
You can be in one country military and recieve an award or medal from another
country's military. Audie Murphy was a slightly distance cousin of mine(his mother was Killian before marriage) and he was awarded the French Legion of Honor, two Croix de guerre, the Medal of Liberated France and the Belgium Croix de guerre. James K. ________________________________ From: Deborah Rorabaugh <[hidden email]> To: [hidden email] Sent: Wed, August 17, 2011 10:17:22 AM Subject: RE: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker I think the question has to do with whether or not the RAF rules are different enough that the costume people might have gotten confused as to whether or not Straker would have had this medal at all or what it meant. Since the RAF version IS allowed for officers, they may well have made the assumption that the USAF version was allowed for USAF officers as well. One of the places I find myself getting tripped up on is that while the two services are VERY similar, the differences are also very large. (And the British government makes things hard to find, which doesn't help. People are actually invoking Freedom of Information just to get the British military uniforming regs openly published.) _____ From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of wmc Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 8:03 AM To: [hidden email] Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker But Straker was American, so what are your thoughts on an RAF award? Or am I missing something, coming late into the conversation? --- On Wed, 8/17/11, Yuchtar <[hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> > wrote: From: Yuchtar <[hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> > Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker To: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 12:21 AM I always thought those ribbons were quite accurate. A couple are out of order, like you say, but not horrendously. I always found the Purple Heart to be especially telling. The only odd choice is the Good Conduct Medal - awarded to NON-COMs only. It would suggest Straker came up through the ranks rather than going through the Academy or an ROTC program. Hmm, does the RAF have a good conduct medal and is it awarded to officers? That would explain a lot. Hang on, I'll go look ...... Hmmmmm, an RAF officer could be awarded the medal (which is a LONG SERVICE/GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL combined), if he spent a certain amount of time 'in the ranks' and only after 18 years of service - so maybe they WERE trying to suggest he started as enlisted. So, even if he enlisted at 18, he would have had to be at least 36 to have an LS&GCM (RAF) ... Y Deborah Rorabaugh wrote: > In going over the various rules and regulations and such (and correcting > booboos from long ago) it occurred to me that the medal array and uniform in > *Identified* may not have been as wrong as many of us have assumed for so > long. > > *Identified* was the pilot and Anderson and the crew would have taken pains > to get things 'okay' at the very least. (And it's not like the US government > takes pains to hide things like medal requirements and uniforming > regulations - one call to the PR person at the nearest US airbase would have > gotten them more info than they probably wanted to know. And we don't know > what information they had to work with from filming Doppelganger.) > > The original concept of Straker (according to various sources, notably > interviews with Bishop) was that he was a desk-jockey - the irritable guy > giving orders from his underground office. It was only after Bishop had been > in the role for a bit, and there were some cast and character changes, that > Straker was expanded into a major character. So the character AS ORIGINALLY > CONCEIVED may well have been an older man. > > Now the ribbon array on Straker's uniform in *Identified* is consistent for > USAF officer of 40 or so. The few placement issues on the ribbons can easily > be explained by the costume department getting their info from a source that > wasn't as accurate as it could have been or somebody in costuming being a > little careless (maybe RAF ribbon priority is a little different from USAF > and it threw them off. After this long nobody is going to remember, assuming > they're even alive.) > > The Master Pilot's Wings badge goes perfectly with the rest of the array. > That particular badge requires 15 years as a rated US military pilot. (Note: > MILITARY pilot.) Other clues from the array are: the Silver Star - that is > a COMBAT medal. Therefore Straker saw combat and performed gallantly and if > the performance was as a pilot, then he was an Ace. Another clue to his > career - the Korean service and UN service medals. That's simple - he served > in Korea in the required time frame. > > So if canon is defined as what appears in the show - then the above *must* > be considered canon. It's in the show. -- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Yuchtar zantai-Klaan | [hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> I am not a number! I am a FREE FAN! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "An apple a day, keeps the, uh ... No, never mind." -- Doctor Who =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= http://www.yuchtar.com/ ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] |
It's my understanding that awards and medals given to foreign nationals are
for things like service to THAT country. So Audie earned his medals for his gallantry in aiding France and Belgium, even though he was an American military man. The South Vietnamese government gave medals to American servicemen for services to South Vietnam. The medals in the Identified array are all potentially valid medals for a USAF officer born about 1930-32. The question is why one medal is there at all (the Good Conduct Medal) and why one is out of its proper order of precedence (The Purple Heart). If the British version of the Purple Heart is one with a low precedence, than that might explain why it's in the wrong place in the array. It's a niggling point, considering everything. _____ From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Billy Killian Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 9:29 AM To: [hidden email] Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker You can be in one country military and recieve an award or medal from another country's military. Audie Murphy was a slightly distance cousin of mine(his mother was Killian before marriage) and he was awarded the French Legion of Honor, two Croix de guerre, the Medal of Liberated France and the Belgium Croix de guerre. James K. ________________________________ From: Deborah Rorabaugh <[hidden email] <mailto:momkat%40dandello.net> > To: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wed, August 17, 2011 10:17:22 AM Subject: RE: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker I think the question has to do with whether or not the RAF rules are different enough that the costume people might have gotten confused as to whether or not Straker would have had this medal at all or what it meant. Since the RAF version IS allowed for officers, they may well have made the assumption that the USAF version was allowed for USAF officers as well. One of the places I find myself getting tripped up on is that while the two services are VERY similar, the differences are also very large. (And the British government makes things hard to find, which doesn't help. People are actually invoking Freedom of Information just to get the British military uniforming regs openly published.) _____ From: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> [mailto:[hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf Of wmc Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 8:03 AM To: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker But Straker was American, so what are your thoughts on an RAF award? Or am I missing something, coming late into the conversation? --- On Wed, 8/17/11, Yuchtar <[hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> > wrote: From: Yuchtar <[hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> > Subject: Re: [SHADO] In defence of an older Straker To: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 12:21 AM I always thought those ribbons were quite accurate. A couple are out of order, like you say, but not horrendously. I always found the Purple Heart to be especially telling. The only odd choice is the Good Conduct Medal - awarded to NON-COMs only. It would suggest Straker came up through the ranks rather than going through the Academy or an ROTC program. Hmm, does the RAF have a good conduct medal and is it awarded to officers? That would explain a lot. Hang on, I'll go look ...... Hmmmmm, an RAF officer could be awarded the medal (which is a LONG SERVICE/GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL combined), if he spent a certain amount of time 'in the ranks' and only after 18 years of service - so maybe they WERE trying to suggest he started as enlisted. So, even if he enlisted at 18, he would have had to be at least 36 to have an LS&GCM (RAF) ... Y Deborah Rorabaugh wrote: > In going over the various rules and regulations and such (and correcting > booboos from long ago) it occurred to me that the medal array and uniform in > *Identified* may not have been as wrong as many of us have assumed for so > long. > > *Identified* was the pilot and Anderson and the crew would have taken pains > to get things 'okay' at the very least. (And it's not like the US government > takes pains to hide things like medal requirements and uniforming > regulations - one call to the PR person at the nearest US airbase would have > gotten them more info than they probably wanted to know. And we don't know > what information they had to work with from filming Doppelganger.) > > The original concept of Straker (according to various sources, notably > interviews with Bishop) was that he was a desk-jockey - the irritable guy > giving orders from his underground office. It was only after Bishop had been > in the role for a bit, and there were some cast and character changes, that > Straker was expanded into a major character. So the character AS ORIGINALLY > CONCEIVED may well have been an older man. > > Now the ribbon array on Straker's uniform in *Identified* is consistent for > USAF officer of 40 or so. The few placement issues on the ribbons can easily > be explained by the costume department getting their info from a source that > wasn't as accurate as it could have been or somebody in costuming being a > little careless (maybe RAF ribbon priority is a little different from USAF > and it threw them off. After this long nobody is going to remember, assuming > they're even alive.) > > The Master Pilot's Wings badge goes perfectly with the rest of the array. > That particular badge requires 15 years as a rated US military pilot. (Note: > MILITARY pilot.) Other clues from the array are: the Silver Star - that is > a COMBAT medal. Therefore Straker saw combat and performed gallantly and if > the performance was as a pilot, then he was an Ace. Another clue to his > career - the Korean service and UN service medals. That's simple - he served > in Korea in the required time frame. > > So if canon is defined as what appears in the show - then the above *must* > be considered canon. It's in the show. -- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Yuchtar zantai-Klaan | [hidden email] <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> <mailto:yuchtr%40earthlink.net> I am not a number! I am a FREE FAN! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "An apple a day, keeps the, uh ... No, never mind." -- Doctor Who =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= http://www.yuchtar.com/ ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] |
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