(no subject)

[den]

Australian and Indonesian military pallbearers carry the coffins into a C-130J Hercules.
Photo: PHILLIP CULLINAN Sydney Morning Herald.

The bodies of nine Australians killed when a Sea King helicopter crashed on a mercy mission in Indonesia, will arrive home in Australia this afternoon. SMH

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced earlier today that he would join the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader when they meet the coffins on the tarmac at Sydney Airport.

Comments

Re: As a Military Man...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

The Indonesian President is pushing to have them awarded the Indonesian equivalent of the medal or honour, but we don't have a process that will award them anything for peacetime honours. The Opposition Leader is pushing to have something in place like a Medal Of Honour, but DSMs and VCs are purely combat medals.


(By the way, a Bitish Marine got a VC in Iraq, the first since the Falklands and the first non-posthumous one since Korea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Beharry )