Thai Military And Police Decorations

[Kerryd]

I could wear mine in my last job in the courts....I cant wear them in my current uniform job though..well not yet anyway.

Now that I'm retired, I can only wear my medals on Rememberance Day (11 Nov) and other rare occasions. It is generally frowned upon to wear them for any other reason, unless I were to get a new job, like a firefighter or police officer.

Some people (in Thailand and other places) may wear badges that look like military medals, but may be simply a pin that their company wants them to wear (I haven't seen any recently, so can't compare them to actual military awards).

[backflip]

"Is it just me or doesn't it seem like Thai military and police personel have an extraordinary amount of medals? hel_l, even school teachers and security guards have a few. What do they all represent? As far as I know, Thailand hasn't seen any military action for quite awhile."

The OP finally found another discussion in which he could bash the Thais. Very creative, on his part. If the OP was really interested, he could ASK the person wearing the medals what they were for...but then he couldn't insult them indirectly.

[midasthailand]

After36 years in the Australian Navy I finished with 5 medals: The Australian Active Service Medal with clasp East Timor, The Australian Service Medal with clasp Solomon Islands, The UN INTERFET Medal, The Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with four clasps and the Australian Defence Medal. Unlike the US military we do not get to wear the campaign medals earned by our ship since commissioning, nor do we get medals for marksmanship, being wounded Etc.. Pretty much the same as all Commonwealth countries Defence forces.

With respect to the Royal Thai Military service decorations, as has been pointed out in several earlier posts, because of conscription most Thai males have served in the military and would have been involved in some theatre of action where they would have earned the right to wear medals. Some 1600 Thai Army were in East Timor (I was there with them as the Liaison Officer between their Battalion HQ and INTERFET HQ). Most Thai military officers above the rank of Major will have been to Staff College, either in Thailand or overseas and will wear their Staff College Graduation insignia on their Right breast. Of course as with any military, the higher the rank achieved, the more decorations (after all we can't have the rank and file looking better than the General staff can we?).

At the end of the day, it would be a brave man that demeaned any decorations worn by Thais regardless of their current status in life because if they are wearing them they probably earned them and are justifyably proud of them.

[Norrad]

The OP finally found another discussion in which he could bash the Thais. Very creative, on his part. If the OP was really interested, he could ASK the person wearing the medals what they were for...but then he couldn't insult them indirectly.

I've now asked 2 people. A government employee and a police officer. Neither can explain them to me.

Maybe you should take the time to read the entire thread

[Kerryd]

Of course as with any military, the higher the rank achieved, the more decorations (after all we can't have the rank and file looking better than the General staff can we?).

I've been in a couple of units where we've paraded before the CO and RSM, each of whom had a single medal, whilst many of the rank and file had 2-5 each.

My last unit was like that as well. With the exception of the newest members (those with less than 2 years of service), everybody had more medals than the CO and RSM. I think they were acutely aware of this, and perhaps a bit embarrassed as well. When the Canada 125 medal came out, they made sure they each got one, and let one long serving Junior Rank have the other (only 3 were available for the whole unit of about 105 people).

As well, in Canada you can only be awarded a medal once, but if you do something that would warrant a second award, you get a number pin/Maple Leaf pin or clasp to denote a second/third/fourth/etc award (depending on what it was for). Apparently the gov't has decided to go an even cheaper route lately though. For example, people that are on their 2nd or 3rd tour of duty in Afghanistan, get a certificate now instead of a pin or clasp. Makes it somewhat harder to see at a glance how many tours a person may have done.

Not sure why they've chosen this route, as it belittles the contributions these people have made, and the dangers they've faced, while serving in places like the 'stan.

As a civilian (now) working in Afghanistan (contracted to the military), I qualified for the General Service Medal after 3 months in theatre (didn't get the medal until almost a year later though). Despite being in theatre for the equivalent of 5 full tours of duty though, I don't receive any additional recognition. C'est la vie.

Under the current rules, all the civilians working for that company qualify for the medal after 3 months in theatre. This means of course, that you could quite likely see some plain ordinary citizens (with no military background) wearing a medal in the future. Most of them won't have any idea about the proper protocols, and some will probably treat those medals the same as they would a Rolling Stones pin.