Dear Service Personnel, currently serving on Op Telic as part of the UK Medical Group, at Shaibah Hospital. My attention, has been drawn to this thread, and I can confirm that documents have been passed to Whitehall from the Pentagon, referring to this incident, and inquiries are currently being made in relation to the proposed awarding of the Bronze Star, to certain key members of 3 UK Med Groups, Blue Light Matrix. I can confirm that these service personnel are in fact reservist, and have proved themselves to be valued members of the Multi National Forces, currently serving in Iraq. My counter part Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is currently looking into this matter and their names, will be published very shortly. In the mean time, I would like to take this opportunity, to thank 3 UK Medical Group & the Blue Light Matrix based at Shaibah, for all their services, during the current military operations in Southern Iraq.
Ian Andrews
Second Permanent Under Secretary
Ian Andrews
Ian Andrews joined the MOD in 1975. Early appointments included work in fields such as equipment procurement, personnel policy.
Currently appointed as Secretary to the M.O.D Medals and Awards Department, Whitehall. Authorising and processing applications from Foreign Powers, for the issuing of Foreign Awards to British Service Personnel.
As a Territorial Army officer, he took a year's sabbatical to serve with the Regular Army in Germany. On his return, he worked at HM Naval Base Rosyth, attended the NATO Defence College in Rome, and served as Assistant Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence in 1986-8. Promoted to Assistant Secretary, he was head of the Defence Lands secretariat, and head of the Resources and Programmes branch for the Army during the Options for Change review. He returned to the British Forces in Germany as the senior MOD civil servant there, then became a Managing Director at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency.
Since 1998, he has served as Chief Executive of what is now the Defence Estates Agency, responsible for the management of the MOD's very significant property holdings; particular successes there have included the publication of the departmental strategy for the Defence Estate, "In Trust & On Trust", and the introduction of a new procurement process recognised as a leading example in government on securing better value for construction in the public sector.