• The “For Humanitarian Service” Medal and its Obverse?

• H.M. King Charles III approves the grant of an Award;

• The Jesters  ~ who got it all wrong;

• The Authors:
                      Rt Hon. Oliver Dowden PC MP ~ Deputy Prime Minister;
                      Rt Hon. Andrew Mitchell PC MP ~ International Development Minister;

• The Command Paper for a Royal Briefing ~ An Alternative Edition;

• So what is a Vocation?

• So what is the Definition of a priceless ‘Humanitarian Service’ ?

• Acts of ‘Humanitarian Service’ by the Untrained.

• Who was the first untrained rescuer into the frozen waters of the Potomac River?

• Factual History of UK/EEC/UNDRO International Rescue. 

It seem as though, having reviewed this Government Command Paper published by the government on 23rd July 2023, that the Proletariat are required to have a fecund artistic imagination when it comes to images of the Monarch ?

Is there anything that this Government can actually get right? Perhaps this is an overdue April 1st joke?

There is little doubt that the Monarch had the highest of humanitarian intentions when, after after reading the Command Paper presented to him by the Leader of the House P. Mordaunt PC MP on behalf of Court Jesters Dowden MP and Mitchell MP that the Sovereign approved this Award. Presumably one can only work with the Command Papers one is handed…

The Authors:
                      Rt Hon. Oliver Dowden PC MP ~ Deputy Prime Minister;
                      Rt Hon. Andrew Mitchell PC MP ~ International Development Minister.

So let us read what this ‘Command Paper’ of PM Sunak’s government actually proclaimed or attempted to, for the revised document with attached sticky notes of commentary, Go Here.

Given the plethora of bums around in politics at the House of Commoners and that ‘Other Place’ we ought not to be surprised at this latest childishly feeble attempt to curry favour and votes with the ‘proles, in this case the National Health Service personnel to encourage them not to strike because they might forfeit a ‘gong’.

Assuming that they will come at such a cheap price?

UK governments have achieved and maintained for centuries the accolade of the least caring regime in this world in paying due respect and care for those, in whatever respect, have served this Nation.

Once the sound of Pomp and Circumstance acclaimed by hollow political tub thumping dies away those heroes and heroines of the latest demonstration of Pure Patriotism are simply slung on the ever increasing human scrap heap and the ‘aristocracy’ return to their self-centered, selfish individual pursuits, with not a backward glance until the next disaster befalls the Nation when they all bow their heads in the sanctimonious cant of false homily.

They seem to think, and they would, that the only driving force in a Patriot’s life is like themselves that Patriotism is driven by personal profit and self advancement.

So here we have an prime example of such creatures of political arrogance who think they will decide that they can set their boundaries, their rules, and their limits to the Humanitarian Courage of a Citizen and take away that Citizen’s right to choose, whether or not, they will summon up, on the spur of perilously a fleeting mortal moment, the Humanitarian Courage to commit their life to go to the aid of a fellow human being who is in obvious mortal danger.

It has been the Bugler’s lifetime of professional rescue experience to have been privileged to be present on countless occasions when witnessing Humanitarian Courage of such breathtaking measure when, or as it was taking place.

So how in those circumstance does the Bugler and many of his admirable working companions evaluate Humanitarian Courage exhibited in such circumstance and should they be the ones to pronounce whether or not this was a Humanitarian Act of Courage beyond measure.

Or is this selfless Humanitarian Act to be determined by some faceless self-serving non entity of a politician who has never ever been there, nor is ever going to allow themselves to be there, because they were never gifted with this priceless gift of the Vocation of common humanity?

To answer such a complex question would no doubt provide ample material for many a Doctoral Thesis but at the sunset it simply dims to the perspective and recollections of the persons to whom the question has been addressed. The first being Firefighters and the second being ‘ordinary’ human beings who in a once only moment of their lives become unwilling Heroes or Heroines.

From the Bugler’s perspective of decades of operational experience that perspective might well be divided into two worlds. The world of the Firefighters world-wide as they see living humanitarian courage up close on the incident emanating from their own colleagues as they go to work and that which they see radiating from the Public whom they are up close to and perhaps, with whom, they are rendering living humanitarian services to others in distress.

It is expected by Firefighters that their colleague Firefighters will have a bedrock of a Vocation for the, at times, grim work they have to do, allied with an overabundance of humanity built on the mutual trustworthiness of interdependence.

In other words it is Firefighter’s expectation that the other Firefighters they work with have an innate sense of humanity coupled with courage and trustworthiness. All Firefighters are by individualistic nature and training team spirited, or they should not be there, and long before it became a modern much abused cliché for the more mundane misapplication of it in daily ordinary life because Firefighters very lives depend on mutual trust and team work on a daily basis where in an instant one Firefighter’s life depends on another’s.

So what is vocation? It is a well developed sense of common humanity which may well not be all that common.

If you were there at the time and you decided not to become involved …later there is the irreplaceable feeling that I should have done that …a social sense of failure and regret…

Singer Songwriter: Phil Collins summed Vocation up well in his pointed lyrics…”Another Day in Paradise” published by  © Concord Music Publishing LLC.

She calls out to the man on the street
“Sir, can you help me?
It’s cold and I’ve nowhere to sleep
Is there somewhere you can tell me?”

He walks on, doesn’t look back
He pretends he can’t hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh, think twice, ’cause it’s another day for you and me in paradise
Oh, think twice, ’cause it’s another day for you
You and me in paradise

Think about it

She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she’s been crying
She’s got blisters on the soles of her feet
She can’t walk but she’s trying

he, think twice, ’cause it’s another day for you and me in paradise
Oh, think twice, it’s just another day for you
You and me in paradise

Just think about it

What can adjudged  to be a ‘Humanitarian Service’?

For example, before and  after Putin, there will be the Russian Tolstoy an extraordinary writer and philosopher who late in life attempted in a compilation to condense his philosophical thoughts into a splendid book “A Calendar of Wisdom” translated into English by author Peter Sekirin [Hodder & Stoughton]. As its title implies these were “Wise Thoughts for Every Day”; a calendar for every day of any year.

In dealing with the illiterate criminal  barbarians the Bugler has had to deal with in the pursuit of Justice this is what Tolstoy  had to say on the 5th of September…

“You should teach others with a good example, but if you teach with evil, then you do not teach, but destroy”.

Though undoubtedly this will be lost on Duncan Smith; Rees-Mogg, Coffey; Francoise; and Opperman et al including their conspiratorially compliant, corrupt,  and obsequious Judiciary.

Returning to the Question in the Bugler’s experience of a pragmatic world perhaps it is best to divide ‘Humanitarian Acts of Courage’ into two. Those demanded, e.g., from professional Firefighters with a Vocation and the General Public where in lies the exemplary examples of ‘Humanitarian Acts of Courage’, acts which Firefighters may well have witnessed.

It is the expectation that Firefighters with a Vocation will have both Humanity and Courage and in micro seconds

On one occasion the Bugler sat in a Coroner Court as the Coroner examined civilian witnesses to a small hours domestic fatal fire in a terrace back street involving 3 children which at an early point he attended.

An involved Witness from the street gave a very articulate and descriptive narrative of attempting with others to aid his neighbour.

He related the scene in detail describing being beaten back by the flames whilst attempting to enter this home and hearing the two tone horns coming in the distant background knowing help was on the way; of the appliances sweeping into the street and disgorging Firefighters equipped with Breathing Apparatus putting on their masks and having had a water jet thrust in their hands to see them without hesitation going straight into the flames.

It seemed to him that seconds later his Firefighters emerged carrying all three children and handing them to their colleagues waiting on their knees with their equipment who commenced to resuscitate them but alas and disastrously only one child was to survive.

The Bugler’s Court recollections do not do justice to the Witness’s account but suffice to say he had a great sense of achievement.

Although extremely sad circumstances these were his well Officered and led Firefighters and his colleagues fulfilling his expectations of the application of their individual Vocations.

Such is the rare privilege of Leadership as the facts of both Humanity and Courage were being recorded in this Court of Law.

“We do good to others not for reward but because we see the Divine Spirit in each and everyone”[Tolstoy].

Now the Bugler should deal with a major human tragedy as it unfolded in Washington DC USA at 15:58hrs on the 13th January 1982 involving a Boeing 737 of Air Florida Flight 90 carrying 74 passengers and 5 crew which unwisely departed to Florida immediately after a snow storm at Ronald Regan Washington National Airport.

Here are the stories of the Bugler’s Heroes and Heroines…

NTSB Accident Report Abstract

On January 13, 1982, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737-222 (N62AF), was a scheduled flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from Washington National Airport, Washington, D.C. There were 74 passengers, including 3 infants, and 5 crew members on board. The flight’s scheduled departure time was delayed about 1 hour 45 minutes due to a moderate to heavy snowfall which necessitated the temporary closing of the airport.

Following takeoff from runway 36, which was made with snow and/or ice adhering to the aircraft, the aircraft at 1601 EST. crashed into the barrier wall of the northbound span of the 14th Street Bridge, which connects the District of Columbia with Arlington County, Virginia, and plunged into the ice-covered Potomac River. It came to rest on the west side of the bridge 0.75 nmi from the departure end of runway 36. Five passengers and one crew member initially survived the crash.

When the aircraft hit the bridge, it struck seven occupied vehicles and then tore away a section of the bridge barrier wall and bridge railing. Four persons in the vehicles were killed; four were badly injured.

For the Full Report of the US NTSB on the Accident, Go Here.

This is a tale of astounding extremes of gallantry and humanity initially led all the way by untrained rescuers then supported by a professional crew of two of Washington’s Park Police Department  using a JetRanger helicopter, and finally by the Firefighters of an overwhelmed a Washington Fire Department.

But the initial question is who was the First untrained rescuer who led the inspirational way into the frozen waters of the Potomac River?

Here is his story until the helicopter took over…

This was Mr.Roger Olian who was a sheet metal foreman at a local psychiatric hospital on his way home from work who was ensnared in the resultant traffic accident on the bridge. He heard passers-by shouting that there were people in the water so he quickly made his way to the scene.

Mr Olian was a ‘big’ man in every sense. The first person to jump into the water with a ‘rope’ entwined around his waist which consisted mostly of trouser belts and vehicle battery jumper cables. But he had to be dragged back to the bank several times by other gallant passers-by standing in the freezing waters but Mr. Olian ignored advice to desist in his attempts and continued making rescue attempts with the growing determination among all that the river should not have them all.
Until finally exhausted Mr. Olian got stuck on and between the ice floes and was finally dragged to the bank and put in a truck to thaw out….Greater love hath no Man…

Another sixth passenger, Mr. Arland D. Williams, Jr., a bank checker, although trapped in his seat was seen gallantly and unselfishly repeatedly assisted in the rescue of his five fellow survivors by passing them his inflated life vest, flotation debris, lowered helicopter lines and lifebuoys from the helicopter above, but tragically drowned before he himself could be rescued. Requiscant in Pace.

“So the man in the water had his own natural powers. He could not make ice storms, or freeze the water until it froze the blood. But he could hand life over to a stranger, and that is a power of nature too. The man in the water pitted himself against an implacable, impersonal enemy; he fought it with charity; and he held it to a standoff. He was the best we can do.”.

— Rosenblatt, R., “The Man in the Water”, Time, January 25, 1982.

Meanwhile the gargantuan but delicate task of rescue devolved with the arrival of the helicopter but the collective will to succeed became intense and through dint of sheer outstanding flying skills by the Pilot Donal Usher, under the direction and ingenuity of Paramedic Melvin Gene Windsor, who in combination with the exhausted and frozen survivors fighting for their lives in the water all encouraged by growing crowd of courageous passers-by on the river bank all managed to the drag five survivors out of the Potomac; ultimately and finally supported by Washington Firefighters who were handling two dual major incidents at one and the same place, one on the bridge, and one in the Potomac river.

The Potomac shall not have them…

• Italian Irpinia Earthquake – Avellino & Region. December 1980.
During this first mission the Bugler was Operational Field Commander leading a team of Firefighter/Rescuers [7] to the Italian Earthquake in the Avellino district of the Avellino & Campania , a far from impoverished Region, in December 1980 in which some 7,000 people died.
The purpose of the mission was to deliver aid on behalf of Rotary International and to render direct humanitarian assistance.
This was the first occasion ever that Firefighter/Rescuers left the U.K., or any EEC Member State, to render assistance to another Member State of the then European Common Market later becoming the European Union.

Subsequently with the assistance of Mr.M.Welch MEP the Bugler prepared a Report and a detailed Proposal for the creation of an intra EEC Emergency Response Team which was presented to the EEC Parliament for debate which was reported in the daily ‘Journal’ [the equivalent of the UK Hansard].

The EEC then created an Emergency Response Protocol and organisation which resulted in a structure with it own rather unimaginative Logo which continues to exist into the 21^st Century.

• Armenian Earthquake – Spitak & Region. December 1988.
Lancashire County Council initiated, approved, financed, insured, and the dispatched an ‘on-duty’ self-sufficient Team of 24 Firefighter/Rescuers with specialised equipment to Moscow [CCCP] and thence to the Soviet Republic of Armenia. It was the age of Perestroika and Glasnost under President Gorbachov.

The Bugler was for a second occasion the nominated Operational Field Commander for this first ‘on duty’ mission ~ a U.K. second.

Whilst attending at Spitak Armenia at 6000ft altitude in the Caucusia Mountains in winter at -25⁰C under canvas with additional provisions [1.5 tns/MRE] and subarctic apparel were immediately supplied upon request before short notice departure by the US Army at Burtonwood in Lancashire.

With the approval of the Soviet Union the Team lived and worked 24/7 for 14 days around the clock alongside Teams from all over Europe and the world, pre-eminent being the French Sappeur Pompier des Paris of the French Army and the Polish Fire Service Officers Academy.

It was known that 35,000 persons were casualties in this high rise but compact small agricultural city of Spitak.

• Subsequently the then Leader of Lancashire County Council [Dame Louise Ellman DBE; M.P.] in 1989 successfully called publicly for the formation of an International Fire and Rescue Team in the UK which in future would be available through the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office for European with world-wide response to disasters becoming, as it was described, an ‘Arm of Diplomacy’.

• In 1990 Lancashire placed two teams on standby and these were offered to the Iranian Government via their Embassy in Dublin Ireland at the time of the Iranian earthquake. Regrettably due to poor British/Iranian diplomatic relations at that time Iran declined all offers of help. The Bugler was ordered to provide Base Command Management and was designated as Operational Field Commander for this mission.

• Later in 1990 the Bugler provided Base Command Management and was Operational Field Commander for a Team of Firefighters/Artisans returning to Armenia post-earthquake to deliver and construct ‘pack flat’ housing for the disabled and homeless at the request of, and funded by, the Armenian Communities in Manchester/London.

• In 1991 the Government created the new U.K. International Search and Rescue Team (UKSART) under the umbrella of the Overseas Development Agency a department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for 24/7/365 international response to Disasters.
The Bugler had the privilege of making the first successful application on behalf of Lancashire and the UK Fire Service for successful inclusion in this Home Office Register and in addition for the first  successful inclusion in a newly formed arm of the United Nations Disaster Relief Organisation [UNDRO].

Operating within UKSART and UNDRO Lancashire continues to provide 60 specialist self-contained professional Firefighter/Rescuer available 24/7/365 throughout the year.

• In 1991 at the request of the Russian ‘Minister for Extraordinary Events’ under President Boris Yeltsin the Bugler was invited to volunteer support and provide managerial expertise for the development of the Rossiya Corpus Spacitilyi (Russian Rescue Corps-RSFSR).

His recommendations were presented post mission to the Minister for Extraordinary Events at the White House Moscow. Consequently being appointed in gratitude as exclusive representative of the RSFSR in the territories of Great Britain and the European Union 1991-5 for further contributions to the development to the RSFSR.

• In 1992 ‘Operation Safe Haven’ was instituted by the UK Government under Sir John Major PC to provide relief for the Kurds fleeing from Iraq. Lancashire, under the Base Command of the Bugler sent two UKSARTeams under the U.N. flag[UNDRO] via Turkey to provide humanitarian services.

• In 1992 County Councillor and LCC Chairman Mrs Josie Farington [Later Baroness Farington of Ribbleton-Lady-in-Waiting to H.M. The Queen] was appointed Chairperson for Local Education Authorities in the Council of Europe. Schools in need in Albania became her special interest group. The brief was to provide at least one good meal per child per diem.
The Bugler Base Managed the acquisition of 700 tonnes of emergency cooking/catering equipment and 4000 tonnes of special certificated biscuits, with 100k plastic spoons and bowls, from the UK Strategic reserve which was obtained, collected, and transported by volunteer Lancashire Firefighters from Government surplus stocks to a shipping point at Liverpool docks, thence to Igoumenitsa Albania where in the interim ownership was transferred to a rather illuminating Mr. I. Mc Cartney MP Ashton-in Makerfield [Later Knighted].

• In 1992 Lancashire with the Bugler Base Managing sent Three teams to refurbish an orphanage [post Ceausescu] in Romania and additionally sent two convoys crewed by Firefighters to deliver medical equipment to a hospital.

• In 1993 following a special request for assistance in respect of food shortage from the Armenian Ministry of the Interior the Bugler on behalf of the Armenian Government purchased in Wales and transported two mobile field bakeries (consisting of 18 vehicles) from the UK Strategic Reserve from Hull to St. Petersburg in Russia for onward rail and airlift to Armenia.

Subsequently as Operational Field Commander the Bugler led a specialist Team of volunteers [7] Firefighters engineers, linguists, and bakers to commission and train two civil defence personnel Teams of the Ministry of the Interior Civil Defence of Armenia. These bakeries which were capable of producing 1000 loaves of bread per hour used USA donated flour.

• Also in 1993 the Bugler Base Commanded and managed the dispatch in convoy  of two volunteer Firefighter crewed post hostility  Balkans [Bosnia & Croatia]  to supply  80 tonnes of charitable aid of Fire & Rescue equipment in humanitarian support and anticipating in the future the creation of ab initio Fire & Rescue training summer schools in support of the ‘peace’ dividend.

• In Winter 1993 following a request from the Governments of the Republics of Armenia and Artsak [Nagorny Karabakh] the Bugler Operationally Field Commanded and led a team of specialist instructors [9] to provide a winter training school for the development of Rescue Teams of the Armenian and Artsak Red Cross Society based at the new Red Cross Hospital in Yerevan. Training provided included breathing apparatus, high rope access, frozen lake sub-aqua, and dog rescue including donated 10 tonnes of donor rescue equipment and 3 trained rescue/cadaver dogs [with 1 year of food and veterinary  medications].

• In summer 1994 the Bugler was gifted an Ex MoD Long Wheel Base Land Rover which was airlifted to Armenia and subsequently was taken by road,driving the ‘original’ Lachin Corridor which took 15 hours thtough the mountains at 7000ft accompanied by 3 volunteers from the newly established [Nagorny Karabak] Artsak Rescue Corps trainees from the Lancashire winter school prior in order to to establish the mobility and resource for the newly established Fire/Rescue Station in Stepanakert.

• In 1995 in Operational Field Command, approved by Lancashire DCFO Holland, the Bugler attended [at his own expense] the Murrah Federal Building Bombing in Oklahoma City U.S.A. with specialist thermal image and acoustic locating devices and worked shifts as a crews manager at the rescue for six days X 24hrs with the Oklahoma City Fire Department and the Will Rogers World Airport Fire Department.

• Later in 1995 following a request from the Central Fire Service Training Establishment of the Ministry of Defence RAF Manston and Kent Fire Brigade the Bugler provided introductory Base Command Management of managerial expertise including experienced personnel, and support of the provision of summer schools for Firefighters in Bosnia and Croatia.

Subsequently, as one of the advising principals the Bugler formed Operation Florian which continues specialist work in this specialist field today – The Latest Operations being Bulawayo  Zimbabwe 2023.

• In 1997 in immediate post-retirement the Bugler provided Operational Field Command at the request of joint hospitals in Armenia whilst by delivering 120 tonnes of donated specialist hospital equipment and sterilised consumables.

During delivery whilst attending the Lord Byron [Mrs Thatcher’s] School Graduation Day lunch the Bugler was informed that an electrician belonging to a street utility whilst working on a 15 mtr street lamp had been electrocuted and was still trapped by live conductors at the top of the utility.
Using an improvised ladder which had originally been constructed from pallet slats the Bugler without local assistance eventually by using a co-opted local crane managed to rescue and lower the casualty to the ground.

The casualty had a single burn on the back of his hand but he made a full recovery in the hospital next door!

In response to the oft asked question … “Were you ever scared?” …many times, but in 36.5 years of service this was the first time the Bugler had ever carried out a solo rescue with no skilled colleagues to hand and is never to be repeated !

• As a ‘swan song’  in 2018 by invitation of the Radio BBC programme “Crossing Frontiers” the Bugler was invited to return on the 30^th Anniversary of this great tragedy to meet the Mayor of Spitak to receive Spitak’s surviving residents thanks.

• During this last visit Paul P. Burns GIFireE  was commanded to appear before the President of Armenia [the 4^th President], Professor Armen Sarkission PhD who had become a close friend after many years of working together  to receive his Nation’s thanks and to be presented with a Holy Reliquary  of an Altar-Cross Carpet reflecting not only the 1000BC cultural heritage of the Armenian Nation but recording the fact  that St Gregory the Illuminator was instrumental in converting all of Armenia to become the first Nation in History to adopt Christianity as its national Religion in 301ad roughly at the same time as the arrival of St.Patrick in Ireland!