Congratulations to Sqn Ldr (Retd) Ray Pelcot on his appointment as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire!
RAF New Years Honours List is at: http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/newyearshonours2015.cfm
Fantastic News.
Superb, really well-deserved!
wilf_san
Bit of a lack of VR(T)s, though, in the list this year… Usually at least one OC Wg gets something…
I don’t really understand what he’s done to deserve this? Unless hidden away is some well deserved unrelated voluntary community work he’s been doing for years.
Like the vast majority getting these seems to require doing little more than a job and someone bothering to do the paperwork. Looking through the lists “senior management” is as ever disproportionately represented as well lots sports types who’ve won something in the last 12 months.
People who actually make a difference to local communities in a voluntary sense don’t seem to get a look in because of the actual criteria nomination requirements. I’ve looked into this and unless someone’s been doing something for donkey’s years and continuing to do it, the actual nominaton is very difficult to write up. Whereas those doing a paid job or won something seem easier to write up. If it was regarded as easier to nominate people doing things voluntarily in the community, ie not given a lifetime over to it, they would be better able to use the post nominals to greater advantage.
As has been discussed on here previously CFAV of any flavour probably don’t get a look in because it has to go through the military route.
[quote=“glass half empty 2” post=22793]I don’t really understand what he’s done to deserve this? Unless hidden away is some well deserved unrelated voluntary community work he’s been doing for years.
Like the vast majority getting these seems to require doing little more than a job and someone bothering to do the paperwork. Looking through the lists “senior management” is as ever disproportionately represented as well lots sports types who’ve won something in the last 12 months.
People who actually make a difference to local communities in a voluntary sense don’t seem to get a look in because of the actual criteria nomination requirements. I’ve looked into this and unless someone’s been doing something for donkey’s years and continuing to do it, the actual nominaton is very difficult to write up. Whereas those doing a paid job or won something seem easier to write up. If it was regarded as easier to nominate people doing things voluntarily in the community, ie not given a lifetime over to it, they would be better able to use the post nominals to greater advantage.
As has been discussed on here previously CFAV of any flavour probably don’t get a look in because it has to go through the military route.[/quote]
He works as a first responder, and has done for many years.
Charity wise he’s had a huge role in helping to set up the JTYAF (John Thornton Young Achiever’s Foundation) which was set up to support cadets from Dorset & Wilts and the Junior Leaders Course after John’s death in Afghanistan. Every year the JL course students raise money for the charity and a number of students are awarded bursaries to go on expeditions to places such as Kenya and Nepal.
14 course raised over £17,000 and last year’s course raised over £22,000.
Many congratulations to Ray! Further to Baldrick’s comments, I also believe that Ray did a lot of work with vulnerable children outside of his HQAC/ATF duties, this was intimated on the Child Safeguarding Course at HQAC, which Ray ran/assisted on. He didn’t mention it directly, as is the case with most selfless people. Whatever he did, good luck to him!
The question about Civil vs Military route for Honours has been mentioned before and I commented at the time that the Civil List MBEs made used to be no more than about 1800 per year, Military List was about 300 per year. Pretty good in our favour I would suggest. As always, people need to pull their fingers out, citations don’t write themselves.
By the way, it didn’t take GHE2 long to start his usual sniping at the establishment as well as being the first to start the traditional biannual bitching and teeth-grinding that we usually see on here post Honours List announcement.
Shocked. Utterly shock. Just when you though GHE couldn’t stoop to a new level, he amazes us all. The words I want to write would get me banned instantly from this forum. GHE, go away. Find another forum. Please. For all of us.
My initial reaction was similar to GHE’s in that It was not obvious why this individual had been singled out for an honour. It appears that there could have been good reason unrelated to his ACO work though and the explanation which was posted above by Baldrick would seem to justify it.
Though I never did a course with Ray Pelcot I was not impressed on the couple of occasions that I did see him, nor was I particularly taken with the general attitudes he appeared to hold. I think the future of ATF is looking good now that some key members of the “old guard” have moved on.
I will admit on the courses I attended with him as OC I disagreed with him in several areas, but I have nothing but respect for him and what he’s done for raising standards in the ACO. As people above have posted he had been involved in various this outside the corps and from what I can tell led the team at ATF very successfully.
[quote=“Baldrick” post=22794]He works as a first responder, and has done for many years.
Charity wise he’s had a huge role in helping to set up the JTYAF (John Thornton Young Achiever’s Foundation) which was set up to support cadets from Dorset & Wilts and the Junior Leaders Course after John’s death in Afghanistan. Every year the JL course students raise money for the charity and a number of students are awarded bursaries to go on expeditions to places such as Kenya and Nepal.
14 course raised over £17,000 and last year’s course raised over £22,000.[/quote]
Well that makes it more deserved IMO, just a pity it’s had to come via the military lists.
I’ve been involved in two nominations, writing supporting statements, both only general voluntary community service, not CF related. Both of whom we thought were well deserving, given the time they put into other things despite having jobs and personal/family problems. Neither of which have been thus far successful, you then wonder why I feel aggrieved that career types in politics, the services, actor/actresses, sporty types who do get them for just doing a job and or getting promoted or winning something. If people are getting them for sporting success then at least make it for repeated success over several years and not just getting a gold in an olympics or winning a cup, to show that they have been at the top of their chosen sport continually. Which is what it seems that people getting awards for “community/voluntary” reasons have to do. There was one that caught my eye of a bloke who has set up and run a group which gets people to overcome their fear of dogs for over 30 years, good on him, but even then he said his wife was equally deserving. Most sporty types haven’t been alive or even doing their chosen sport for 30 years and neither have many of the career types getting them been doing their jobs for 30 years. But then I imagine they have almost professional citiation writers, especially in the CS/MoD.
There are people out there who should be getting recognition (not just the odd one or two) for voluntary work through this system, without having had to give over effectively another lifetime to it.
[quote=“cygnus maximus” post=22795]Many congratulations to Ray! Further to Baldrick’s comments, I also believe that Ray did a lot of work with vulnerable children outside of his HQAC/ATF duties, this was intimated on the Child Safeguarding Course at HQAC, which Ray ran/assisted on. He didn’t mention it directly, as is the case with most selfless people. Whatever he did, good luck to him!
The question about Civil vs Military route for Honours has been mentioned before and I commented at the time that the Civil List MBEs made used to be no more than about 1800 per year, Military List was about 300 per year. Pretty good in our favour I would suggest. As always, people need to pull their fingers out, citations don’t write themselves.
By the way, it didn’t take GHE2 long to start his usual sniping at the establishment as well as being the first to start the traditional biannual bitching and teeth-grinding that we usually see on here post Honours List announcement.[/quote]
You can write as many citations as you want in L&SER, you won’t get them through, at least not until after April :evil:
Why? He was a serving officer when the citation was written, so it’s not going to go anywhere else. As soon as it’s mentioned what he does full time, it will always go down the Military route and you can guarantee that the citation was written on the lines of ‘in addition to his work training adult members of the ACO, he also does x, y and z’. You stand more of a chance of getting something through the Military lists anyway because you’re not competing with ‘services to the rescue and rehabilitation of hedgehogs’ and the like.
Why? Is Uncle Les finally retiring or has Aunty Dawn got around to disbanding the Regions?
[quote=“Gunner” post=22806]
Why? Is Uncle Les finally retiring or has Aunty Dawn got around to disbanding the Regions?[/quote]
He’s going Gunner.
As I said earlier, we have the biannual teeth-grinding on this site; is it due to envy, frustration, anger or a mix of several things?
Sure, the sportsmen and women honoured perhaps don’t automatically deserve awards just for seemingly doing their jobs, but many are involved in extensive charitable work or are seen as role models. Equally, many of the luvvies do a lot of external work to their acting as well, so I don’t think we can knock them just because they are in the professions they are.
Oddly, I agree with GHE2 on one point and that is what seems to be the automatic honouring of senior military, police and civil servants. Why should the Met Commissioner be knighted just for being Britain’s senior copper? Why should the Chiefs of the Services also be Knights of the Realm? There may be an historical precedent and if so, I would love to know; perhaps our gurus such as Wilf San may be able to comment.
What we also seem to forget is that we do not have the monopoly on doing work which is to the benefit of others in addition to our primary employment, we just seem to shout about it more on forums like this. There are hundreds of thousands of people across the Country doing things very similar to what we do. There are also hundreds of thousands doing great things for our communities in other ways and we cannot all get gongs. Churchill was so right when he stated “the object of presenting medals … is to give pride and pleasure to those who have deserved them. At the same time a distinction is something which everybody does not possess. If all have it is of less value …” . Obviously, we cannot all receive awards, but we should be content that whilst there are undoubtedly several in every list who perhaps may not have done as much as others, there will be more who have every justification for being recipients of a State Honour.
Then why comment?
Why are you quite happy to spout off against a fellow Officer, of which you clearly have no knowledge?
It’s no wonder people don’t get written up in this organisation if this is the petty mindedness which goes on.
:mad:
Then why comment?:[/quote]
Perhaps to try to get information as to what the individual has actually done which may justify the honour, beyond merely reaching the requisite rank and retiring?
Then why comment?:[/quote]
Perhaps to try to get information as to what the individual has actually done which may justify the honour, beyond merely reaching the requisite rank and retiring?[/quote]
So the fact that the Mil committee and Honours committee have vetted the application, passed it to the PM and HM the Queen has ratified it isn’t good enough that it needs GHE2’s seal of miserable approval?
Disgusting behaviour.