WITH this year marking the centenary of Anzac Day, thousands of photographs of distinguished ex-service men and women have been uploaded to web pages across the internet.
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However, according to one organisation not all may be as it appears.
Bill Hobson is an investigator for Australian and New Zealand Military Imposters (ANZMI), an organisation that looks into reports members of the public are claiming undeserved military valour or wearing unofficial medals in public.
Mr Hobson said that after Anzac Day this year, the organisation received a large number of reports from the general public regarding ex-service personnel wearing unofficial medals in public - including members of the Bega Returned Services League of Australia (RSL) sub-branch.
The online group normally exposes individuals, but on this rare occasion Mr Hobson realised that he had multiple reports of alleged imposters from the same sub-branch.
Bega RSL sub-branch treasurer Mal Wilson, along with president Thomas Blake and junior-vice-president Bob Grimes said the branch had corrected the error of its members in good faith, and that the members involved had been unaware they were wearing unofficial medals until they were advised by ANZMI.
“We’ll rectify it from this end and contact them and say thanks for bringing it to our attention,” Mr Wilson said.
Their mistake, according to ANZMI, was to wear unofficial medals on their left side in public.
“People purchase medals and add them to their collection to add a bit of weight to their rack, however only genuinely earned federal medals are the only ones you’ll see worn on the left side,” Mr Hobson said.
The Federal Government’s “It’s an Honour” website for “Australia Celebrating Australians Wearing Awards” provides guidelines for the wearing of medals both official and unofficial.
The website’s section on unofficial medals states that ex-service “organisations sometimes commission their own unofficial medals to mark participation in particular military campaigns, periods of service or types of service that have not been recognised through the Australian honours system.”
The site advises that there is no impediment to wearing such medals in appropriate private settings, such as a meeting of the relevant ex-service association, or a reception hosted by the relevant foreign government, however when wearing them in public the medal must be worn on the opposite side.
“Ideally, unofficial medals should not be worn at public ceremonial and commemorative events, but if they are worn as the occasion demands, the convention is that they are worn on the right breast,” the website advises.
“We’re all long-term veterans and we receive reports from all around Australia and then investigate the integrity of the matter further,” Mr Hobson said on ANZMI’s practice of exposing “imposters”.
Mr Hobson said there were a number of reasons people may want to wear unofficial medals alongside their official ones.
“Genuine medals can be worth a lot of money so they can be locked in a safe and fakes worn when they’re out in public.
“Some people just want to wear more than the bloke next to them,” Mr Hobson said.
Many sites sell replica medals from all over the world cheaply online, from Australian bravery medals to long service and commemorative awards.
For example, the Cross of Valour award, which was instituted in 1975 to award acts of conspicuous courage in circumstances of peril, can be bought online in replica form for as little as $35.
A replica Military Cross or Bravery Medal can be purchased for under $30, while an Order of Australia will cost you $40 online.
Meanwhile, the ultimate award for acts of “the most conspicuous gallantry, pre-eminent acts of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy”, the Victoria Cross, can be bought online for a mere $46.
Replacement lapel badges and brooches for official awards can be purchased through the Honours Secretariat at Government House in Canberra rather than purchased from replica dealers online.
“Unfortunately, many have chosen to wear official medals and their commemorative medals together - this creates a false and misleading impression to many in the community that the person is a 'returned veteran' by virtue of the number of medals being worn,” ANZMI investigator James Menzies said regarding the ever-increasing issue.
“Depending upon the circumstances the person could be committing serious offences against the Defence Act 1903, in particular S80A and S80B,” he said.
“The most serious cases we investigate are people who have never served in the Armed Forces, but wear replica copies of medals awarded for operational or war service.
“In recent years, this has become a growth industry, with people claiming operational service in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan,” Mr Menzies said.