The NTV Medal has been delayed by the UK Government. Letters were sent to the 1500+ applicants who applied for the medal informing them that they would receive the medal in Late Summer. However, it has been announced that this has been delayed until Autumn 2023.
LABRATS and the BNTVA have 50 places at the Cenotaph for veterans to march proudly in the parade. These medals must be awarded by then, what is the delay and why is it happening? Alan Owen of LABRATS, met Johnny Mercer MP on the 14th of June to discuss the delays and expressed the anger and hurt that the veterans and their families are facing.
The letter sent by the Ministry of Defence to everyone who has applied (which includes over 1,000 veterans)
The letter states:
"The UK Government has made a commitment to award the official commemorative Nuclear Test Medal by later summer 2023"
As far as the veterans and their families are concerned, this is another commitment that the UK Government has failed to achieve, another failure after many years of hope.
Anna Firth MP asked Mr Mercer for an update in the House of Commons:
Mr Mercer says "it is not easy to get these things through government". Yet it was formally announced on the 22nd November 2022, 7 months on and still no design, if it had been signed off by King Charles III and announced by Rishi Sunak, what is the delay?
Only Mr Mercer knows the truth, but he will not divulge where the delay is. Who is holding up the process? He states that he will "strain every sinew in Government", but what has been happening since the announcement in November? The Veterans and their families are angry, they are upset and they feel as if the Ministry of Defence is again waiting for them to die, so the medal is awarded to as small a number of veterans as possible.
The Veterans and Descendants have taken to Social Media to express their feelings:
Veterans
We have heard it all before, governments come and go, but the Nuclear Veterans keep fighting, that's exactly what we did for our country all them years ago, so please no more false promises just action to award us our medal
Why is the medal being delayed yet again? They managed to get the coronation medal on as many chests as possible in a very short period but, somehow, this medal is as slow as frozen molasses.
I do feel we are being let down again, it is so frustrating to keep being promised and then not carrying out the promise, we all wish to wear our medal on Remembrance Sunday because who knows how many of us will still be here next year, so come on make an old Nuclear Veteran happy.
I feel that it is the so-called "Civil'' service at the MOD and their outrageous duplicity that has denied the Nuclear Test Veterans any recognition up to now and I feel they are, even though a medal has been awarded, still doing their utmost to delay and drag out the actual presentation of this medal for as long as they can with a last fling of bitterness. It is no wonder our present-day Armed Forces are in such a parlous state, being managed by a body who thinks they are a law unto themselves. The death of every veteran who dies between the announcement of the award and the actual presentation will be looked upon as a score in their favour.
These people who say that we faced 'No Risk of Rigour' and keep denying that we test veterans were out of harm's way. Well, take a look at what nuclear test veterans are saying now, since the official Secrets Act was lifted which gagged us for many years. The release of official secret documents which have now become available under the 'Freedom of Information Act ' have proved that the MoD have lied under oath in the high courts of our country, by denying that we were not worthy of a GSM or any other recognition. Shame on those people. GIVE US OUR MEDAL, RECOGNITION AND APPROPRIATE COMPENSATION FOR WHAT WE HAVE AND ARE SUFFERING.!
Many of us were temporarily blinded by lifting our glasses prematurely to see if the bomb had actually gone off. We only saw red balls in front of our eyes for a week, suffering temporary blindness. Another difference that also happened on the 'Y' test was the bomb cloud poured rain all over us soon afterwards when there were no other clouds in the sky only the remnants of the bomb cloud, the rain was proved to be 'irradiated black rain ' which we inadvertently showered in like we normally did when it rained.
Imagine these bombs, compared to the size of the Hiroshima Bomb which flattened everything up to almost 8 miles in diameter, it yielded 1 Kiloton, we being only 20 miles from a bomb almost two hundred times bigger. The Grapple Y, three hundred times bigger. I was there for four bombs but the others were at Malden Island 600 miles from Christmas Island so I never even saw those. 'NO RISK OF RIGOUR' was the reason given by MoD to our appeal for a GSM. Nuclear Radiation is a weapon of mass destruction and is invisible bullets.
It took over 4 months to work out the criteria for the medal, and when it was first published they managed to give the wrong location for Christmas Island, this could indicate that the people writing the criteria were not fully aware of the nuclear testing programme.
It is now 7 months since the Prime Minister announce the award of the medal, during this time the MoD have managed to publish the criteria, but the medal has not been designed yet, an answer to a question on the 14th of June states the design has not been finalised, then another answer on 19th June stated that the medal is EXPECTED in Autumn, no actual date. If they had started the process of producing the medal when it was first announced, we would have expected it to be ready by now.
The slow progress being made with the production and issue of the medal makes me wonder if the MoD are wholly committed to this project, because for years they have refused to consider such an event.
So hard to believe for us who have waited so long. Don’t play around any longer.
CAN I ASK WHY.??is he man enough to give a reason
I've said for many years that you can't trust these politicians at all.. They are full of false promises. If you trust these politicians then you're a fool. Only trust them when they deliver on their promises. Just wait till the medals are handed out.....they will all jump on the bandwagon saying how much they appreciate us veterans.. They will say anything that suits their purpose and ambitions. The truth is this and previous governments don't give a damn about nuclear veterans. When my time is up I will die smiling knowing that the children of veterans will be a pain in their arses for many years to come!
We have heard it all before, governments come and go, but the Nuclear Veterans keep fighting, that's exactly what we did for our country all them years ago, so please no more false promises just action to award us our medal.
We are not important enough, and it’s not urgent or an emergency to the MOD so it is just another thing to deal with them I suppose. But to us it’s like having constant toothache and not having any painkillers. For an organisation that can organise and put an invasion fleet together of such a size and scale to the South Atlantic and fight a war in just a few weeks can’t seem to organise the production and presentation of The Nuclear veterans medal is absolutely disgraceful when veterans are waiting but also dying, we all deserve more respect than that for the sacrifices we made for our nation and the World you could say. Nuclear Veteran C/I 1958.
Descendants & Widows
I won't be holding my breath until Remembrance Sunday, in the hope the medals will be distributed. Too many broken promises by successive Governments.
Firstly, I will say to me personally it is not going to affect me because my dad died a long time ago, aged 53, and is not waiting for a medal and my mum has also died. Mum campaigned in the 1980’s / 90’s / 00’s, a long time after my dad died, for recognition of veterans. My parents will never see the fruits of their service/campaigning. I can wait is what I am saying. For me this delay is unforgivable for those service personnel and civilians that are still alive to hold that medal and start to walk the long road of getting the MOD to acknowledge what they did, what they know, and what they did wrong. Some of these individuals may not actually survive to get that medal, that is the consequence of it being delayed, and that is unforgivable. I would like to know why there is a delay and I don’t think the design of it would be a credible excuse. What is making this process so long we need honest answers?
I AM upset. It’s too late now for my dad who passed end of March but I support the surviving nuclear veterans … it’s despicable they are delaying it.
No proper answers to questions relating to the 'process', 7 months on and no design agreed, the MoD needs to be ashamed. There have been over 1500 applications for the medal,
how many will die before they receive it? JM calls the UK 'The best place to be a veteran', not from where I am sitting it isn't.
My father died nearly 30 years ago, we applied for the NTV medal to honour his service and yet again the useless MoD cannot even be bothered to award it. How can it take 7 months to design a medal? It could take days if they wanted to do it, the bottom line is they don't. Ben Wallace never wanted to agree to the medal in the first place and he doesn't want it to be awarded. One man should not be holding up the applications of over 1500 people. it is a disgrace.
I guessed something had changed when there was no news re. LABRATS visit to comment on the medal design on June 5th...eerily quiet. I have emailed the Medal Office personally, and had a reply that should they receive the medals on time, then late summer will stay..so! my question is, where are they being made? Please not CHINA!!
Conclusion
Johnny Mercer MP is a champion for veterans, he worked extremely hard to get the medal awarded following the #lookmeintheeye campaign, he is still working hard on our behalf, but we must remember that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is not his department, he can apply pressure as a Cabinet Minister to Rishi Sunak and others, but it is Ben Wallace MP who is in charge of the MoD.
You can help, by writing (via letter and email) to Ben Wallace, Johnny Mercer, Rishi Sunak, your MP and King Charles III. We have written letters to them, asking for the medal process to be expedited and seeking reassurance that the medal will be on the chests of those men at the Remembrance Day parade.
A personal message from Alan Owen
I met with Johnny Mercer MP and the Office for Veterans' Affairs Director Jessie Owen and expressed our concerns regarding the initial cohort receiving their medals from the King and the fact that the MoD was promising awards in 'Late Summer'. Johnny was not aware of the letter, so I presented him with a copy. Since then, an announcement has been placed on the Government's website announcing a delay (we don't know why there was a delay) and he told me to provide him with any comments from veterans to advise veterans that they could write to him, so a copy of the above comments has been sent today (Monday 26th June 2023).
So I ask you all, to write to him now, his contact details can be found here:
Write to Ben Wallace, his contact details can be found here:
Write to your MP, and ask them to apply pressure, especially if they are a Cabinet Minister.
We must ensure these medals are on the chests of the veterans on Remembrance Sunday, it is inconceivable that it will not happen, but we need action now to ensure that our message is heard. We have more questions being raised in the House of Commons, but we need more. We cannot do it alone, we need your support.