In 2007 the Australian SAS celebrated its 50^th Anniversary which concluded with the 50^th Anniversary Ball which is where Nally made a fatal mistake; he wore medals he was not entitled to.

“Chris Nally turned up at the ball and was wearing a number of medals which included the UK General Service Medal, Australian Active Service Medal (clasp Iraq), Australian Service Medal and other medals. He told me he got the UK GSM whilst serving with the RAAC when he went on Exercise Long Look in 1978 and they went to Northern Ireland and that he had permission to wear it.”

From another source,

“I was speaking to Chris one day and he told me he had been to Angola and Cambodia, but told me he won’t go into detail, he may tell me another time as he couldn’t talk about it at the time because of what he had seen.”

An investigation was carried out and information obtained from a number of sources which include a number of web sites.

From the Clarke Review of Veterans’ Entitlements transcript he states a couple of things:

“I joined the Military in `75, finished at '91, engineers, armoured SAS and Commandoes. “

 “A couple of other things is that being in the unit I was in, you can't tell a lot of what you did and where you did it, so therefore, a little statement that you can make is that thing never happened because you were never there.”

It is true that in Special Forces Units, you do not talk about what operations you carry out, but we all know thanks to the media, magazines and books that have been published where the Australian SAS has been and is on active service.

In a letter he sent to the following web site hereford@shropshirestar.co.uk   Nally has listed the units he served in as SAS Regt, 1 Commando Regt, 1^st Armoured Regt and 10 Field Squadron, 7^th Field Engineer Regiment.

If you note the dates he served in the army and after receiving information from a reliable source, Nally is entitled to wear only one medal and that is the Australian Defence Medal which he is not wearing in the photograph we received.

For readers of this site who are not familiar with medals we will start from left to right as you look at the photograph. The first five medals are official medals. The sixth medal is what we term a tin medal (an un-official medal produced by some associations and ex service organizations.) Those medals if worn should be on the right breast under the next of kin medals. You can carry out searches for most medals at the web site below.

http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?show=advanced

To search the current Australian Defence Force Medals and the entitlement to them search the following web site:

http://www.defence.gov.au/medals/ 

The medals Nally is wearing are;

General Service Medal 1962 (GSM UK) this medal was last issued by the Australian Government to a few Australian soldiers that served in the early stages of the Vietnam War, before the Vietnam Medal was introduced.

The only other time the GSM can be worn is when a member of the ADF is attached to a unit in the UK on an exchange program and that unit goes into an operational area and it is issued to each member of the unit. First it has to be approved by the Australian Governor General before it is worn. This applies to all foreign awards.

Australian Active Service Medal 1975, issued to members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) that have operated in a war like operational area. Nally has the clasp Iraq on his medal. Had Nally served in Iraq, he should be wearing the Iraq Campaign Medal with the AASM. The invasion of Iraq took place in 2003, long after he was finished with the ADF.

Australian Service Medal 1975 approved in 1988, and may be awarded for service in, or in connection with a prescribed non-warlike operation.

Champion Shots Medal only one medal is issued each year to each service of the ADF. A search of the "Honours and Awards" site was done and returned a nil result for Nally.

UNTAC Cambodia (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia 1991-1993. The ASM clasp Cambodia was actually awarded for service to UNTAC 8^th October to 14^th November 1993. All up 16,000 personnel from 32 countries were involved.

Simpson Medal is an un-official medal bought from an organization which made the medal up and should never be worn with official medals.

Nally stated he received the GSM whilst with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps on Exercise Long Look in 1978 in the UK when they went to Northern Ireland.

Below is the web site that gives the Chronological History of the 1^st Armoured Regiment from January 1946 to 2005. As can be seen there is no mention of them being in the UK in 1978.

http://armoured.alphalink.com.au/history.htm

4 Nov 1977;

A parade us held as the last Centurion departs.

 

Late 1977;

B SQN completes the last Leopard conversion course.

 

19 May 1978;

5 Officers, 1 Warrant Officer, 3 Sergeants and 96 Rank and File form part of the funeral party for the late Sir Robert Menzies KT, AK, CH.

 

30 Nov 1978;

EX Locust Eater is conducted in South Australia.

 

13 Nov 1979;

MAO163 TPR Paratus was enlisted into the ARA as the Regimental Mascot.

 

Why Chris Nally wore those medals to the ball knowing full well that other members he served with would be there, we will never know. One thing we do know is he has lost the respect of members he served with in the SAS Regiment as well as ex members who served before and after him. He has brought disgrace upon himself and his family.

He has shown no respect towards the SAS Regiment especially those that have and are serving on active service. More importantly to those members of the Regiment who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

For this he will grace our web site for the rest of his life.

We have been reliably advised that he has been banned from the home of the SAS Regiment.

4th Feb 2011