Ewan,

Thank you *muchly* - comments interspersed.  I was definitely (being
STRAYAN) leaning towards the British tradition of not giving a
decoration to every bugger who turns up.

On 17/1/21 4:31 am, xxxxxx@quibell.org.uk wrote:
> Hi Alex,
>
> Interesting.
>
> I wouldn't distinguish between the Navy/Marines/Army/Scouts. If you do you have to think of three, four or five level two/three medals, one for space, one for planet, one for vacuum etc. Although you may want an "in the face of the enemy" "not in the face of the enemy" track.

That seems to be fairly common to Terran decoration systems, so I'll
probably run with it.  For the aforementioned STRAYA (who instituted
their own VC, as the letters patent landed before the point of
divergence), *gallantry* and *bravery* are explicitly distinguished -
the former is in the face of the enemy, while the VC (Aust)'s analogue
in the latter (the Cross of Valour) is "just" for things such as
charging back into a just-bombed, still-burning nightclub.

Both strings have four levels of decoration, and they're interleaved in
precedence - VC (Aust), Cross of Valour, Star of Gallantry, Star of
Courage, Medal for Gallantry, Bravery Medal, Commendation for Gallantry,
and (tail end charlie) Commendation for Brave Conduct.

> You've got the commonwealth stuff, which is the Victoria Cross/George Cross lineage type thing comes in (as well as orders of knighthood but that might not work)
> You've got republican lineage type thing such as the Presidential/Parliamentary/Congressional/Legion (medal) of honour
> And you've got the Soviet lineage type thing such as the Hero of/Star of where ever you are from
>
> You could do something akin to the VC by melting down a Vilani dreadnought/cruiser/destroyer from some important battle where boarding actions while costly were instrumental in Terran victory. Name it after the UN Director General at the time make it a cross and you've got your highest order for bravery in the face of the enemy (the reason why the VC resonates so well and separate honours with its name continue as part of commonwealth honours systems is due to this type of thing (heroic action by a bunch of people who claimed victory via their sacrifice). In the same way as the George Cross you can introduce another cross with some other UN Director General's name for not in the face of the enemy ...

That presumes UN forces had the nod in IW1 and managed to capture such a
battlewagon (which they didn't) - but I see where you're going.  The
wheels are turning (then again, maybe not). 

I had pencilled in someone in Derryn Dodgie's professional tradition
managing to yoink such a battlewagon in the chaos leading up to the
assault on Terra in IW3 (and promptly renaming it TCS _Embuggerance_,
with something like "Strike the Vilani flag.  Hoist the Terran flag. 
Let the buggers have it."), but IW2 is still spinning up.  I'm not sure
if the canonical IW3 hasn't been butterflied away.

Sadao Kanzaki is listed as the first post-Treaty of New York UN
Secretary-General - his TC counterpart (almost exactly a century later
and still-incumbent in Parental Advisory) is Kanshi Bannerjee.

>
> Then go with say the Legión de Honor de la Asamblea (Assembly Legion of Honour in Spanish) as you're number two order for bravery in the face of the enemy and then Dìqiú yīngxióng (Hero of Earth in Mandarin), as your third. Or you could swap them around Hero 2nd, Assembly 3rd.
>
> You could then be into something like the Croix de Guerre, as say the Najam Al'ard (Star of Terra in Arabic) with different palms for different levels of "mentioned in dispatches".
Ie, the fourth-level awards? Makes sense.
>
> Then leave it at that with just major campaign medals, along with your long/good service medals.
Theatre honours, battle honours and honour titles would be a separate
thing, as they're not _individual_ awards (which WTFs Vilani immigrants
no end - such as Curly in PA).
>
> That way you don’t cover people's chest with ribbons that devalue the ones above, and you only get medals for noteworthy stuff as opposed to "just turning up" (If you're wearing the uniform you must have passed basic training, you don’t need a medal for it).
>
> That's probably a very British perspective on things, and I'm sure that other have different opinions, but that's my take on the highest orders from across the world and putting them into the official languages of the UN in a way that makes sense to me.
>
> Hope this helps stir your imagination.
As I said, thanks heaps - you've at least knocked a bunch of stuff loose.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ewan
>
>
>
--