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Big medal mounting response
By Cpl Kristen Pickering
Edition 1168, June 14, 2007 |
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MEDAL mounting at Army’s expense has attracted a large response from soldiers with more than 14,600 medal mounting tasks already completed.
Maj Russell Pryor, SO2 Clothing, AHQ, said since February all serving ARA and ARes soldiers were entitled to have their medals court mounted through regional clothing stores.
“In the four months since the new policy was put into place figures have been very impressive – 35 per cent of Army have used the service,” he said. “Serco Sodexho Defence Services (SSDS) and sub-contractors have court mounted more than 5000 full-size medals, more than 3500 miniatures and nearly 6000 ribbons bars have been created.”
Defence Materiel Organisation has fully supported the initiative and is in the process of securing a constant supply of ribbon and related items.
“Army would also like to congratulate and thank SSDS for its work in purchasing substantial quantities of ribbon from external providers as an interim measure to ensure there would be no stalling or reduction in production,” Maj Pryor said.
SSDS is using a courier system to transport medals between regions and states for completion. The average turnaround time from medals being submitted to the regional clothing store and returned to the customer is 10 days.
The entitlement for members is restricted to items issued by the Directorate of Honours and Awards (DH&A) and includes one set each of original medals, original miniatures and ribbon bars. This also includes the affixing of clasps, rosettes or numerals.
Court mounting of miniatures is only available to sergeants and above as no requirement exists for corporals or privates to wear miniatures. The exception is for band corps and ECN 363 stewards in the catering corps.
Personnel are required to provide an honours and awards printout from PMKeys to show that those medals and awards they want to have mounted have been recorded and approval has been granted for them to be worn.
Enquiries to Maj Russell Pryor on (02) 62 65 2051 or russell.pryor@defence.gov.au
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