Gong

Jackspeak - A guide to Royal Navy and Royal Marines Slanguage.

Gong. Campaign or Valour medals; also 'fruit salad' and 'brag rags.' Referring to the medal ribbons sewn on dress uniforms.

These days when a unit returns from service in Afghannistan there is a parade organised and the boss or a member of the Royal family presents campaign medals to the troops.

Many moons past it wasn't always so. An edict would be passed down the chain of command, eg from the Company Sgt. Major to the company clerk for Marine (Mne) Twice-Nightly to report to said Company Sgt Major (CSM). On arrival at the office Mne Twice-Nightly would usually have no idea what had caused his presence to be required, until one of the white boxes shown above was shoved across the desk at him with the terse instruction, "Get it sewn on." So out came needle and thread and on went medal ribbons and eventually the medal with the appropriate clasp attached specifying which location on the planet had been blessed with a visit from Mne Twice-Nightly.

There was a bit of a 'do' about the lack of medals for valour issued to Royal Marines after the Falklands War. The boss at the time is on record as stating, "They did what Marines are supposed to do."