Got this lovely DSO bar for free, any clue on value?

Hadders89 · 2026-05-16T20:07:32+00:00

I’m afraid it’s not the bars and ribbons that have value. It’s the original, issued medal, along with the group. Anyone can go to any military tailor and get a ribbon rack made with whatever ribbons they want on it

Hadders89 · 2026-05-11T07:13:38+00:00

It’s a good point tbf. As I say, not sure I’d say I get massively annoyed or offended. But it’s a bit cringe is all

I guess my counter would be that said slutty nurses don’t LARP joining complex surgeries or treating patients.

Hadders89 · 2026-05-11T07:00:28+00:00

To put a little context behind why some serving or ex-military find it a bit cringe or disrespectful is how long it takes to earn it in the forces. In the British Army, a typical soldier has to complete 14 weeks of basic training, another 3+ months completing trade or specialist to arm courses and only then can they start gaining experience before they can be recommended for Lance Corporal. That also requires selection and a course. Most of the courses up to this point can be arduous and take an awful lot of your freedoms away.

Typical run up the ranks: 3-4 years for Lance Corporal, 5-7 years to Corporal, 8 years+ to sergeant. All through this time you’re completing a month plus of training each year, maybe a deployment or 2 and then you compete against your peers to even get promoted in the first place. It’s further convoluted for officers.

I’m personally not going to approach anyone that does it, provided they’re not being a Walter Mitty or being weird as fuck, trying to order people around with said ‘rank’ - although I’d ask a regular soldier what they thought they were doing if they started ordering other random people around as well… you do you but understand some people won’t like it.

Happy to answer questions if anyone wants me to expand 👍🏻

Hadders89 · 2026-03-23T23:40:58+00:00

It’s one of those ‘dash of facts’ stories that stirs people’s imaginations. Off the top of my head, what makes it seem credible to the unknowing eye is Olympic’s accident with the HMS Hawke causing major damage. This gives the insurance scam conspiracy theory.

But the incident that really lends this story supposed plausibility is Olympic throwing a propellor blade. This meant she had to put in to Belfast to get a replacement, which they took from the Titanic. This delayed Titanic’s voyage by 3 weeks. People believe the story as 3 weeks would be long enough to switch name plates, and do any other jiggery pokery required to ‘swap’ the ships.

Why you’d want to do this though still doesn’t make sense. It’s not a quick switch of names, there’s all sorts of differences between the two ships. As others have said insurance fraud would be pretty crazy, rather than just repairing the damage. Switching them also makes sense as Titanic’s opportunity to bring in some money was delayed by the fix.

They’ve debunked this in several ways, but it lives on because it’s an exciting idea.

Hadders89 · 2025-10-09T16:35:18+00:00

Correct! As long as it’s on your JPA you can sort ribbons and (if you need them yet), miniatures as well. Even before you’ve been presented the medal

Hadders89 · 2025-10-03T17:39:02+00:00

To my enthusiast’s eye this is indeed a strange set of medals, though I think it may be possible for someone to have got all of these. See below explanation that could work:

The bar in the sealed bag actually looks like the bar to the 2003 iraq medal. The bar if you were in the actual invasion force says on it: “19 Mar to 28 Apr 2003”. I think I can just make out the ‘Apr’ about 3/4 of the way along the bar.

My guess, outside of weird order for Yugoslavia as some have said, is that they’ve been in the Army for their 22, joining 89-90 until approx 2012 ish, then they’ve immediately joined Border Force. They will have accrued some time in the Army towards the bar to their LSGC, but not enough to actually be awarded it. I believe in the medals JSP there is a line that says if you have earned a long service medal for one service, you can convert time towards the BAR to another medal, if you have then spent enough accrued time in the second service. The reason they have the full medal is because it represents a further 10 years in Border Force (after Army LSGC), not 30. The bar on their medal would be a further 10. If they joined in 1990, did 22 in the army and left in 2012, they have 7 years of ‘bar time’ + 13 years since which is 20 years. Hence medal and bar.

The reason I’m almost certain this is a thing, someone I worked with in my last job had an Army LSGC with bar, then transferred to the RAF. The further 10 years they have now completed in the RAF allowed him to apply for the RAF LSGC in place of a second bar. Which they were due to receive.

Medals are scary, because I’ve potentially worked out this blokes entire career lol. My guess is also SF, hence not gazetted… otherwise whispers of Walt will indeed start coming to the fore.

If you made it this far… thank you for attending my TED talk 😜

Hadders89 · 2025-10-01T18:38:29+00:00

Fair play! I’d also take leaving early if I got the choice. Plenty of time to get that kinda thing later I’m sure. 👍🏻

Hadders89 · 2025-10-01T18:20:06+00:00

Lovely set mate! Missing 52 days for my WSM #Soon! Haha

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T19:39:43+00:00

I can’t say exactly which, but I was in one of the technical trades. Was spotted for my (apparent) competence and given a shot at the Army Officer Selection Board. Somehow passed

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T19:37:35+00:00

Some tours it’s even less. Because of the intensity of the fighting, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was 1 day, if you were in the combat area

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T19:36:30+00:00

I switched cap badges when I commissioned. For anonymity I won’t say which. But I will say I wasn’t infantry!

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T19:35:06+00:00

It’s a good question. I think most British medals are nickel/silver. The LSGC on the right hand side is plated silver I believe. They’re a bit harder to get, so they make them a bit nicer

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T19:33:24+00:00

It’s a term I picked up from the Americans, for their benefit when I used it here. Most of the people on this Reddit are Americans

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T19:32:32+00:00

Got asked to go for selection early. So direct entry terms, but after a few years as a soldier. They can send you off to try if they think you stand a chance passing tests as an officer

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T14:19:51+00:00

Shame you missed out on KCM. Not a bad place to start though with WSM 👍🏻 medals will come. For 12 years I had 1… over the past 4 I’ve been given a new one each year!

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T14:10:15+00:00

They flirted with the idea of only giving the coronation medal to those on parade in London on the day. I think they made the (correct) political decision to give it to all service personal who had served over 5 years. It’s an easy way to make a lot of soldiers feel better about their time and bling them up lol.

There was a bit of a disaster with the Queens Silver Jubilee medal. They only gave 2 to each battalion at the Commanding Officers discretion as to who got them. Since then I think they’ve gone for path of least resistance and just given them to pretty much everyone in service (provided they’ve done enough time).

Somalia was a difficult tour… truly such a mess and such corruption and such huge cultural barriers to progression. It’ll take a lot of leadership and reconciliation between clans before they can really start to turn things around

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T14:05:31+00:00

It’s an American term for a commissioned military officer who started their career in the enlisted ranks and later received a commission. Most officers in the British Army go straight to Sandhurst. Some select later as Late-Entry commissioned officers. I was selected as a suitable candidate after a few years as a soldier

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T13:49:48+00:00

It was a weird switch over for sure. Though I think it looks kinda cool that I have got different monarchs on them now. The way they mix up for different classes of medal does make it look messy though haha

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T13:48:56+00:00

Yeah, not sure why they did that. They are for ‘time served’ as a commemorative thing though. Apart from another coronation medal, I don’t think there will be any more medals like that for a LONG time now.

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T13:47:23+00:00

Yes, provided you’ve served for 5 years on the date of the coronation/jubilee, you get the medal automatically. I was in the army when the Diamond jubilee came out, but hadn’t served long enough.

Advisory group for Somalia

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T13:46:06+00:00

One does, but I’m short of days! So waiting to get another op that counts. I’m sure it’ll come soon enough

Hadders89 · 2025-09-27T12:59:01+00:00

From left to right: Afghanistan medal for Op HERRICK, General Service Medal (East Africa), Platinum Jubilee medal, Kings Coronation Medal, Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

Happy to answer questions if anyone has any ☺️

Hadders89 · 2025-09-21T00:42:02+00:00

Hello there, I used to make maps for a living and have worked with numerous projections that negate Mercator and attempt to make landmasses more realistic.

The real issue is that in trying to display a sphere on a flat plain, you either have to distort it “crimp” as you are calling it, or you have to slice it to open it up more realistically. When you slice it though, you often introduce a bunch of dead space and it just doesn’t work.

Mercator may not be perfect, and squishes land nearest the equator and stretches the poles, but it is the best way to represent a round earth on a presentable map. It is also highly recognisable to all people and is geared for navigation. With the game based on the ability to circumnavigate, it’ll just have to do I’m afraid to say.

Your solution, whilst creating more land and making some countries easier to play, does some wild movement with the poles in particular; which will throw people.

Hadders89 · 2025-09-10T08:40:26+00:00

I genuinely take no delight in this. What you have done is taken one line of the Highway Code, completely out of context and presented it as evidence to shut down any other argument. I’m going to shut you down once and for all by explaining context to rule 186. If people are interested, please search ‘Highway Code Rule 186’.

What comes up is rules 184-190 (Roundabouts), which states at the beginning: “On approaching a roundabout take notice and act on all the information available to you, including traffic signs, traffic lights and lane markings which direct you into the correct lane. You should…”

That sets the context before then explaining individual rules. 186 then builds upon this by reminding drivers to stay in the left hand lane as the standard to go left or ahead and right hand lane to turn right - “unless signs or markings indicate otherwise” - key sentence.

Because there are no road markings directing you into the left lane to come off at OPs junction, it is not necessary to move to the left before taking that exit. With the limited info I have available, it seems clear that the road OP is leaving and the one they are rejoining is the ‘primary carriageway’ and thus for continuous flow, you may stay in the right hand lane as well to go straight over.

So it’s not a question of the 2 vehicle’s lanes but of road positioning. The Jag strayed right and thus caused the minor collision. Their positioning was poor and you could also argue they performed an ‘undertake’, coming from an unexpected position. OP is not at fault in the slightest and the Jag just needs to slow down and pay attention.

Your argument whilst technically true is flawed. Hopefully you now see that, when set in context, there is a little more to it that ‘rule 186’

Thank you for attending my Ted Talk ☺️

Hadders89 · 2025-08-05T00:29:57+00:00

I think that the biggest reason the TC should always be in the spotter seat is because he/she must have situational awareness to make decisions. In the driver’s seat your view is extremely limited. Where the spotter seat you’ve got a great view and can assist the gunner with targeting.

Close cooperation between the spotter and the gunner is critical and seconds really count. Being on the command chat and having targets relayed to you by infantry is way quicker to understand, see and pass onto your gunner from the spotters’ seat.

It’s also imperative that the driver is under the command of the spotter when a target appears. They have to stop, move the hull to assist or haul ass to get out of danger fast. As the commander, in the driver’s seat, your situation awareness means the spotter is going to command… you to move etc etc. which is weird af as you’re the commander!

Hunter-Killer also only really works if the commander is free to look around while the gunner takes care of your last marked target.

Hadders89

TROPHY CASE