I've got a half an idea - or maybe only a quarter of one - trying to
pretend to plan to germinate sometime in the future, and I'm hoping to
pick the collective brain of the list for info.

The idea has to do with recognition in some variation of the OTU - my
ideas may not fit canon, but I'd prefer to apply them to a generally-
familiar context whenif I get the article written.

What I'd like from the collective: If you've taken your nation's
shilling, or know people who have, and know how their service worked,
I'd like to know what you know about the forms of recognition at high
levels that your nation's services give - medals/ribbons, Mention in
Dispatches, The Grand Poohbah's Nose-Tweak, whatever. If it's easy to
get the recognition (the service likes to give them out), I want to
know that; if it's difficult (not even the Dictator-for-Life gets
three rows of fruit salad on his uniform), I want to know that. I want
to know what sort of things the service gives out recognition for, and
who decides (i.e., at what level is final approval?). I want to know
what sorts of ceremonies accompany various types of recognition. And
all that.

Please, let's not get into any arguments about whether a particular
service's recognition practices are sensible or not, or whether
they're "better" than anothers; this is more along the lines of
anecfact gathering.