Kookaburra2011
Mar. 13, 2013: named for a hero, HMAS SHEEAN approaches her home port in WA - LSIS Nina Fogliani, RAN.
6580. Continuing the discussion on the preceding Entry: both the Federal Government and RAN Command have accepted the decision of the Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal - announced on March 1, 2013 - not to belatedly award posthumous Victoria Crosses to any of the 13 men whose names were put before an Inquiry held over the past two years, including, of course, those of Ordinary Seaman Edward ['Teddy'] Sheean of HMAS ARMIDALE [I], Captain Hector Waller of HMAS PERTH [I] and Commander Robert Rankin of HMAS YARRA [II], men whose names are all honoured in the nomenclature of the Collins Class submarines.
In announcing the Tribunal's decision, the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, Senator David Feeney, said it would be greeted with 'relief' by some, and 'anguish' by others.
This raises the qujestion of who would be feeling 'relief,' and who would be feeling 'anguish' ?
Accepting that the individual consideration of these cases involved complex issues requiring a rigorous level of dispassionate review, we would have to say that we still feel the field for feelings of 'relief' is both bureaucratic and very narrow, and that the field for feelings ranging from 'anguish' to a flattened sense of disappointment involves many thousands of people - from the families and connections of the men considered, to the personnel of our defence forces, particularly the Navy.
The Tribunal believes it has upheld the integrity of Australia's Defence Honours and Awards system, but we are not aware that has ever been in doubt, and find that to have not found ONE of these cases of gallantry worthy of the highest recognition is an extraordinarily bureaucratic and conservative approach.
We can barely imagine it happening in any other country.
Eleven of the 13 men on the list were from the Royal Australian Navy, which - as Kimberley Dunstan points out in an eloquent comment under the preceding Entry - wasdoubly unique among the Australian forces in allowing its higher awards to be determined not by its own command, but by the Royal Navy, and by the fact that no member of the RAN has ever been awarded a Victoria Cross.
Kim suggests those two facts are linked, and finds an substantial element of lingering cultural cringe in it.
We will now list the 13 men considered, and rejected, for the Victoria Cross, inj the next Entry.
Photo: LSIS Nina Fogliani, RAN.
Mar. 13, 2013: named for a hero, HMAS SHEEAN approaches her home port in WA - LSIS Nina Fogliani, RAN.
6580. Continuing the discussion on the preceding Entry: both the Federal Government and RAN Command have accepted the decision of the Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal - announced on March 1, 2013 - not to belatedly award posthumous Victoria Crosses to any of the 13 men whose names were put before an Inquiry held over the past two years, including, of course, those of Ordinary Seaman Edward ['Teddy'] Sheean of HMAS ARMIDALE [I], Captain Hector Waller of HMAS PERTH [I] and Commander Robert Rankin of HMAS YARRA [II], men whose names are all honoured in the nomenclature of the Collins Class submarines.
In announcing the Tribunal's decision, the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, Senator David Feeney, said it would be greeted with 'relief' by some, and 'anguish' by others.
This raises the qujestion of who would be feeling 'relief,' and who would be feeling 'anguish' ?
Accepting that the individual consideration of these cases involved complex issues requiring a rigorous level of dispassionate review, we would have to say that we still feel the field for feelings of 'relief' is both bureaucratic and very narrow, and that the field for feelings ranging from 'anguish' to a flattened sense of disappointment involves many thousands of people - from the families and connections of the men considered, to the personnel of our defence forces, particularly the Navy.
The Tribunal believes it has upheld the integrity of Australia's Defence Honours and Awards system, but we are not aware that has ever been in doubt, and find that to have not found ONE of these cases of gallantry worthy of the highest recognition is an extraordinarily bureaucratic and conservative approach.
We can barely imagine it happening in any other country.
Eleven of the 13 men on the list were from the Royal Australian Navy, which - as Kimberley Dunstan points out in an eloquent comment under the preceding Entry - wasdoubly unique among the Australian forces in allowing its higher awards to be determined not by its own command, but by the Royal Navy, and by the fact that no member of the RAN has ever been awarded a Victoria Cross.
Kim suggests those two facts are linked, and finds an substantial element of lingering cultural cringe in it.
We will now list the 13 men considered, and rejected, for the Victoria Cross, inj the next Entry.
Photo: LSIS Nina Fogliani, RAN.