MORE of your letters on the subject of commemorative and souvenir medals and whether they should be worn alongside official medals.

june letters

THIS DEBATE IS TOO HOT FOR VETERANS TO HANDLE

THE CLONES of gallantry medals are beneath contempt and others are over the top, but to describe all commemorative and foreign medals as “bling” is to offensive to those who take a different view.
What of foreign government awards such as the Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal and the three Russian convoy medals and the Artic Star designed to pin to the ribbons of the British Atlantic Star?
Were we wrong to take pride in seeing our veterans receiving and wearing the D-Day medal issued by the French government?
How are we to deal with the resentment felt by those with little or no official recognition?
In 2002 I sent the MoD a cartoon from Soldier depicting three junior NCOs with five medals each and a much older SNCO with one. How many might those young soldiers be wearing now? Apart from the UK itself, the UN has issued 13 medals and Nato six for service in what was once Yugoslavia.  In the Second World War those who served there received the Italy Star.
If anything sparked the wearing of unofficial medals it was the Royal British Legion-sponsored National Service medal. Many thousands were sold, demonstrating intense interest and demand.
Given that many former Regulars had nothing to show for their service, the RBL were initially receptive to my suggestion that they sponsor an all-arms, all-ranks “Medal of Service” with a bar or bars denoting that service. Their attention was drawn to Lt Col (Retd) Ashley Tinson, a medal expert and adviser to HMG, who had advocated that one commemorative of choice be allowed to be worn alongside any official award(s). It was suggested that, with their backing for his proposal, it might become an acceptable compromise to all parties.
After a lengthy period the relevant committee decided that the RBL would never again sponsor a commemorative medal. This may have been due to the criticism the Legion had by then attracted, even to being labelled hypocritical in sponsoring commemoratives then attempting to ban their wear on parades.
There is now the official Veterans Badge, but on parade it lacks the visibility of a medal, and I have heard that volunteer reservists and Cadet Forces do not qualify.
Those who feel unofficial commemoratives are discourteous to Her Majesty might consider that the SSAFA-endorsed Golden Jubilee Medals bear both the Annigoni depiction of the Queen and her armorial shield and motto. Its production is said to have received the approval of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office.
Consider also that, despite the previous refusal to issue retrospective awards, we now have the Canal Zone Medal.
Veterans will not sort out these problems because feelings are too strong on both sides of the debate. Time might though, given the number of medals issued in the recent past and for current operations. Perhaps the time has come to have a thorough review of all the issues surrounding decorations, medals and awards, legislation not excluded. – Gerry Gibbon, Hull, Yorkshire.

MEDAL FOR WOUNDED IS GOOD IDEA

I HAVE been following the letters in Soldier and have paid particular attention to the medal dispute. I served for five years and deployed on many a tour. I have to agree with a comment about the wounded Serviceman recognition medal and feel that this should be taken into consideration by the power-that-be.
Having read a number of grumble letters from the RMP about their Close Protection medal, doesn’t it make sense to recognise the dangers that people go through. Surely a medal does not cost that much to produce, but it might make the men and women who serve their country feel more appreciated. – G Seymour, late RCT.

NATIONAL SERVICE STILL NOT RECOGNISED

SUCCESSIVE UK governments have totally failed to recognize the contribution made to the nation’s safety, well-being and security by National Servicemen.
I joined the Royal Marine Forces Voluntary Reserve in 1956 and served for two years with my unit until I was called up in 1958. I won a coveted green beret and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. On completion of National Service, I returned to the reserve and subsequently resigned my permanent reserve commission in 1967 as Lt RM (Reserve) in the official records.
I volunteered again many years later and served as a Home Service Force (HSF) officer with 6/7th Queens, having in the interim served with a colonial police force at the sharp end.
Some letters in previous issues of Soldier tried to take the moral high ground by decrying the National Serviceman’s right to wear the RBL-sponsored medal. The writers demeaned themselves and appeared foolish and insensitive and should be ashamed of themselves. They would regain lost respect by supporting the call for correct and proper recognition of National Servicemen, who were probably serving their country with honour and fidelity while these pathetic scribblers were wearing short pants.
I shall continue to wear my National Service medal with great pride at RMA reunions and on Remembrance Sunday. If some blimp should feel aggrieved – too bad. We should all pull together to remedy a shabby and deplorable injustice. – Ex-Lt Charles Lovelace RM(V).

AUSSIES LEAD BY EXAMPLE

THERE has been much debate about bling and genuine grievance from those who have received no recognition for their service in the form of a medal. The Australian Government recently introduced the Australian Defence Medal (ADM) for issue to all Servicemen and women who have completed their initial period of enlistment or four years’ service.
Eligibility includes National Servicemen. There are approximately a million Australians eligible for the award.
The Queen approved it and the precedent is now there for a persuasive argument to be made to expand it to British Service personnel. If introduced it would rightly recognise the service of National Servicemen, submariners and BAOR soldiers and airmen, among other deserving causes. After all, a TA soldier can receive a VRSM after ten years’ service, nine certificates of efficiency and a minimum of 270 training days. It just needs someone to properly make the case. – Name and address supplied

may letters

RECOGNITION FOR LONGER SERVICE

I AM not without medals, but I feel for those who gave service and got nothing. The government will do nothing as it will cost money.

Take Northern Ireland – is it right that the Accumulated Campaign Medal is for three years? I served for more than two but not three. A General Service Medal is issued for 30 days in theatre, so surely there should be some recognition for those serving longer – a rosette maybe for 12, or 24 months, or a reduction in time on the ACSM? – Keith Bates, Stoke  on Trent. 

I GOT MY MEDAL 53 YEARS LATE

I HAVE read about the wearing of bling medals and think it is the fault of the MoD.

I served with the 1st Battalion, The East Lancashire Regiment in Suez from 1952 to 1954. I received my General Service Medal on September 1, 2005 at Chorley Territorial Army Centre, 53 years late. I would have liked my wife of 50 years to have seen it but she died in February 2003.

I remember the case of Pte Airy of The Lincolnshire Regiment, who was shot through the head while driving a Bedford truck. His mother asked what had happened to her son and the MoD said he was killed in a road traffic accident.

The MoD said Suez was not a war but a conflict and did not issue a GSM until 50 years after.

We were nearly all National Service personnel, but more than 1,000 died between 1951-54 from disease and Egyptian terrorists. – Ex-Pte Aspden, Kabrit Point, Egypt.

OUR MEAN AND UNFAIR SYSTEM

AS one of your correspondents put it, "bling is a bit of an insult". I think the way the UK has awarded gongs to Service personnel has always been mean and unfair, so if someone wishes to purchase commemorative gongs, why not?

At least, in most cases, part of the payments goes to military charities.

A point about the Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal, awarded by the Malaysian Government to us old guys for service between 57 and 66, is that the Honours and Decorations Committee still refuses to accept that it can be worn. Instead of quoting what Queen Victoria said the members should look up the approval for such awards to be worn as stated in the London Gazette of May 3, 1968.

We who have them will wear them with pride. As far as I am concerned it is an insult to the Malaysians, to us and to those who never returned. – Norman Horton ex-R Signals, RAC, RMP.

TIME FOR A WAR WOUND MEDAL

WITH all this nonsense going on about bling medals and whether or not any medals not issued should be worn, is it not about time this country recognised what soldiers actually go through when in action and issued a War Wound Medal to those unfortunate enough to be injured, especially as there are now so many of them?

    I signed on as a boy entrant in the Green Jackets and having given them nearly 12 years of my life, was wounded and invalided out of the Army.

     I feel I missed out on quite a lot – the Accumulated Service Medal, the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, plus more from active service areas my regiment went to after I was injured.

I have a feeling of “loss” at not receiving recognition for having played my part in the Army. A War Wound Medal would go a long way to relieving my frustrated and cheated feelings, and those of thousands of people like me. – Keith Kneller, Winchester, Hants.

april letters

NO MEDALS AFTER 11 YEARS

ON the subject of medals, I served 11 years in the Regular Army from 1983 to 1994 and have no medals to speak of and hate the fact that I have nothing to show for my service. I served on Op Granby 2 in the first Gulf war, arriving in theatre in March 1991, just after the ground war stopped, but received no medal for that service after spending many months based there. – Name and address supplied.

THIS SERVICE DESERVES RECOGNITION

I believe there should be an official National Service medal. I completed two year of National Service, followed by three in the reserves, after that I did 23 years with TAVR and the TA – surely 28 years deserves an official medal. – J M Cockburn, ex-RAOC, West Lothian.

SUEZ DATES WEREN’T INCLUSIVE

PAGES taken at random from the burial register of war and memorial cemeteries in the Suez Canal Zone go some way to explaining why we veterans of that conflict wear the Suez Canal medal as a memorial.
The criteria for the GSM Canal Zone clasp dates are all wrong because there were as many deaths by terrorist action before and after Oct 1951-Oct 1954 as there were during that qualifying period.
In total from 1948 to 1955 there were more than 1,000 burials – British and Commonwealth Servicemen and women, civilian support staff and dependants.
Some of the deaths were entered as accidents, the same as in Iraq today. But we know a lot of them were by terrorist hands. We witnessed the events.
The people who are infuriated by the wearing of commemorate medals should realise we were there and we saw it. We are proud to tell people what it stands for. Besides, we waited 50 years for our service to be honoured with the GSM. – D G Davies, Organising Secretary, South Wales Branch Canal Zones.

WEAR YOUR BOUGHT MEDALS WITH PRIDE

I FEEL as a former Royal Marine of nine years from 1958, and serving in the Arctic Circle, the Med, North Africa, Aden, Kenya, Persian Gulf, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong and Borneo, that my comments are for the thousands of Marines, Navy, Army and RAF personnel who feel let down by MPs and senior officers who did not push hard enough to make sure we received the recognition we deserved.
National Servicemen who served alongside us have been offered a small lapel badge, which we feel is an insult.
The Government says yes to a Volunteer Reserve Medal for ten years but no to our nine years’ plus of full-time service. For that there’s no recognition at all.
I stood beside an RAF chef and a Royal Navy leading writer at a remembrance parade in Gloucester. They wore the GSM and NSM respectfully, whereas I served in Aden with 1,000 other Marines, guarding ammunition dumps, riding shotgun on convoys, spending three months on active service in Dhala carrying out border patrols, being shot at and not one bit of recognition.
I took part in the commando attack on a barracks outside Dar es Salaam during the Dar Mutiny, but again no recognition. In Dhala and attacking the barracks in Dar es Salaam, we were in harm’s way, which is probably more than can be said for many of those who receive MBEs and OBEs.
I say that if you served and bought a medal, wear it with pride.  – J Booth, Gloucester.

PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN VETERANS

AS a 75-year-old veteran may I say how much I enjoy Soldier. I served in Korea 1951-1953 AND Suez 1953-1955.
I think the articles on bling medals have been great. If in the past the Government of the day had issued medals for troops on, as they are called today, operations , there would be no reason for these commemorativeS to be struck and sold. Medals are part of history for those who have served.
I joined in 1949 as a boy soldier in the Royal Signals and what I was taught gave me a set of standards that are with me to this day. Almost 75 and I still work a full week at a reception desk in Peterborough.
People are interested in what you did as a Serviceman and many times I am asked: “Did you get any medals”?
The one thing that does annoy me about bling is when you see them being worn but not mounted. They look scruffy. The wearers have paid for their commemorative medals so should pay for them to be mounted correctly.
Today medals are issued for almost any operations overseas and quite rightly so. Britain has in the past been too tight towards its Servicemen and women. When you serve you may not think about medals, or you did not in my service days, but later in life when family members ask about medals it is nice to talk about them and to show them.
On a cruise to South America I took my medals, but not many wore them on formal evenings. Other passengers asked how I had won them and said they looked nice with evening dress.
Many thanks Soldier for an excellent magazine and thank you for giving so much space to bling medals. – Reg Briggs, Peterborough, ex-Royal Signals, Ex Harrogate Boy.

NATIONAL SERVICEMEN DESERVED RECOGNITION

I READ with some disgust the comments of retired officers regarding the wearing of commemorative medals.
I was a National Serviceman from 1952-1954 and was posted to the Suez Canal Zone. I went where I was told to go and did what I was ordered to do, just like a Regular.
Today, soldiers who are not even in the firing line get a medal for being there and they also get good conduct and long service medals. The National Serviceman in the main was not rewarded at all. I have a National Serviceman medal and a silver cross “for general service”, both of which I wear with pride.
Why shouldn’t the ordinary soldiers who have served their monarch and country be allowed to wear their commemorative medals which they have earned the right to wear?– P B Walsh, Bristol.

BATTLE TO GET MALAYSIA MEDAL

MANY of us are fighting not for the right to wear the PJM from Malaysia but for the right to receive it at all. Those who fought in the so-call “Emergency” of 1949-53 have been overlooked and it has been given to those from 1957-60, when it was all over bar the shouting. Some have bought a bling PJM and that is a shame. We will continue the fight. – Rosie Coote, secretary, The Royal Anglian and Suffolk Regimental Association, Lowestoft Suffolk Branch.

MY LEGION MEDAL COLLECTION

HAVING served nine years in the British Army (1977-86), I joined the French Foreign Legion at the age of 30. I received the National Service medal as every French soldier does after completing one year’s service in the French Army. I also got a medal for being wounded in the 1991 Gulf War. I also received a medal from the Kuwait and Saudi governments which we were allowed to wear.
I was also given, and allowed to wear, a medal for being in combat and serving overseas.
My father served in the British Army in the 1960s and got no medal so he brought what you call bling medals and it does not bother me if he wears them. – Anthony O’Keefe, Ottawa, Canada.

VETERANS BADGE IS AN INSULT

I SERVED my country for almost ten years as a Regular and then another 20 as a long-term reservist, so most of my adult life has been with the Armed Forces.
I think that the veterans badge is a insult to all who served their country. It's time all ex-Service personal were awarded some type of medal for their service.
We all have one thing in common with the veterans who have campaign medals on their chests in that we were all willing to serve our country. I served in the 1970s and 1980s when there wasn't many conflicts so the chance of me ever being awarded a campaign medal was remote. It is time the country recognised the service that I and hundreds of thousands of others gave. – Rowland Howells, address supplied.

AUSTRALIA’S POSITIVE RESPONSE TO PJM

HEARTENED by two of your correspondents this month, namely Maj (Retd) R A J Tyler and Cliff Housley, I would like to express a view on the PJM in particular.
 My brother returned from living in Australia just over a year ago where he was an active member of his local branch of the RSL. His first comment on seeing me with my medals on for the Remembrance Day parade was “Where’s your Malaysia medal? All my Aussie pals have been wearing theirs.”
I then took a more active part in the campaign for the right to wear the PJM, and have now taken the drastic step of having had mine mounted, full size and miniature, and have worn both on Remembrance Day and to Mess Dinners. Nobody has challenged me, and if they do, they will meet with a robust defence of my right to wear the PJM, using the defence of foreign medals provided by the two correspondents above.
I must say, although it might sound a trifle hypocritical, that I was surprised by some of the medals I did see mounted alongside the GSM. There was a bright blue enamel Maltese Cross worn with a GSM with Northern Ireland clasp. When I enquired what it was, I was informed it was for service with the UN in Korea, as the wearer had been on the Honour Guard at the war memorial in Korea when based in Hong Kong.
There were a couple of nuclear testing medals worn because the wearers had done the Porton DOWN battle run. Hmmmm . . .
I also noticed that one of your other correspondents in this forum has said that he thought that people who were in the Forces in the 60s, 70s and 80s may not have had much opportunity for combat. What about Aden, Radfan, Dhofar, Lebanon, Brunei, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Northern Ireland and the Falklands? One of my pals has five clasps on his GSM. –Dave Wakelam, Capt (Retd), email.

DECISION IS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND

THE wearing of foreign medals alongside Imperial ones, or rather the refusal to permit the wearing of foreign decorations and medals alongside British ones, has generated much anger.
It is difficult to understand why British decorations and awards can be worn on the breasts of our Commonwealth armed forces, but their awards to us cannot.
Much expense and time is given in deciding that you may not wear the PJM next to your GSM (Malaya) medal. A whole division of very senior people is employed to deny you that right. The Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service chairs the Committee on Honours, Decorations and Awards.
It costs a fortune to tell us that we may not wear our foreign and Commonwealth decorations and awards alongside our British ones. Shame on them. – N F Grantham (Maj Retd), email.

I’LL WEAR MALAYSIA MEDAL

I HAVE applied for the Malay Medal for my time in Singapore, Borneo and Malaya. If and when I receive it I will wear it with pride, I would love for some jobsworth tell me to remove it. – Ken Winter (ex- water transport, RASC/RCT), Bishop Auckland, Co Durham.

march letters

I SERVED in the Regular Army from 1983 to 1994 and hate the fact that I have no medals to show for my service. I was on Op Granby 2 in the first Gulf War, arriving in theatre in March 1991 just after the ground war stopped, but received no medal despite spending many months based there. – Name and address supplied.
I BELIEVE there should be an official National Service medal. I completed two years of National Service, followed by three in the reserves, after that I did 23 years with the Territorial Army Voluntary Reserve and the Territorial Army – surely 28 years deserves an official medal. – J M Cockburn, ex-RAOC, West Lothian.

THIS debate raises many emotive issues but (as an historian, a published writer of military history, and a former soldier) I believe the historical perspective provides a compelling argument for the retrospective issue of two new official medals for the 1945-1990 period, thereby rectifying significant errors of omission by successive governments.
First, the nation’s incontrovertible reliance upon its National Servicemen from 1949 to 1962 and the landmark status of National Service in British history should be clearly recognised by the issue of an official medal to every person conscripted from 1949.
Second, it is remarkable that no general service medal has been issued to recognise one of the longest-running global conflicts in history: the Cold War. Notwithstanding that very many thousands of Servicemen and women enabled the final victory of the West and Nato in 1990 (and despite the existence of campaign medals for a few Cold War hot spots, such as Malaya and Korea), an official Cold War medal should be issued to every Serviceman and woman who served full time in Britain’s Armed Forces between 1945 and 1990.
Finally, while undoubtedly well-intentioned, the veterans badge is a poor substitute for government recognition by the issue of these two official medals to all who served the nation, involuntarily and voluntarily, during the turbulent post-1945 decades. This long overdue remedial action would also assuage the apparent sense of frustration that has no doubt fuelled the purchase of unauthorised medals by many British veterans in recent years. – David Stone, Tiverton, Devon.

OTHER than for good conduct, how can there be medals just for having been in the Army? Campaign medals should be issued when troops have been sent to a combat or potential combat zone and some of these have been left incomplete, probably for political expediency.
The veterans badge is enough and it has no place on parade. – Roger Gifford, formerly civilian clerk, HQ London District.

THE Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal was issued to Servicemen and women in HM’s force in 2002 and with a minimum of five years’ service under their belts. But, while many lost out, the Queen’s grandsons both wear the medal although neither was serving in the Forces at the time.
Why can’t the rules be changed so anyone who served a minimum of five years in the Regular Army or the Reserves forces between 1977 and 2002 be allowed to wear it, even if they have got to buy it? – G D Lamb, South Shields, Tyne and Wear.

I AM surprised no one has mentioned the number of medals worn by some members of the Royal Family. One was even worn by a Sandhurst cadet on passing-out parade.
Perhaps the Americans had a good idea when General Marshall initiated the US Army’s decision to issue medals for what we at the time (and later) regarded as laughable reasons. I believe his thinking was that their country was asking young men to leave their homes, take part in hard training and travel thousands of uncomfortable miles around the world, and that displaying strips of coloured ribbon on their uniforms was a small reward.
We have been tardy in awarding medals and ribbons. Two examples are Suez and the Russian convoys, although I think you only had to spend a day in Korea to qualify for a medal, or be stationed in Japan for a short time to qualify for the UN Medal. – Dennis Rose, ex-WO2, Royal Signals TA.

The Editor writes: The Golden Jubilee Medal was in the gift of the Monarch so it is entirely logical that the Queen chose to confer it on members of her family.

THERE are hundreds of thousands of former National Servicemen whose blood would boil were they to read John Elliott’s article on wearing non-issued medals.
They served as conscripts and even wear their regimental ties on parade and would defy anyone to deny them the proud right to display the fact that they were called out of careers to answer the call to serve. Many patrolled the East German border and sweated in the Eastern Mediterranean and were not issued with medals.
Many lost comrades in National Service days and knew what it was to sleep in a foxhole in a German forest in freezing conditions, prepared to engage Soviet Bloc forces. They were the real thing.
Who are these people who hold them in disdain, they who held the line decades ago? Double away you objectors. Service of any kind is not demeaning but worthy of recognition which Westminster never gave. – Capt (Retd) J S Colman, Argyll.

PEOPLE who did their service in the 1960s, 70s and 80s would not have had much chance of seeing combat. So when they do go on a parade they have nothing to show for their time in the Forces.
The British Army should following the French when it comes to issuing medals. Their conscripts were given a national defence medal for serving one year, and if anyone was hurt in a combat area they would be issued with the equivalent of the American Purple Heart. – Name and address supplied.

I HAVE followed your bling (what an insulting word that is) correspondence with interest and not a little sadness. In 1948, soon after my father died, I received my call-up papers for National Service. I did not want to join the Army because I was of far more use at home being the only breadwinner, my mother being unable to work and two young brothers still at school.
I am told that appeals were made, but with no result and I had no option but to report to Oswestry.
I served for more than two years in the Middle East, and experienced hostility in Tripolitania and Egypt – more so in the latter location. I lost four good friends by hostile action and two others because of training accidents. Others died in the areas I served in. I was instructed to write “OAS” – On Active Service – on my mail home but never received any medal or official recognition or thanks from a grateful government for my pressed service.
I wear my Suez and National Service medals (approved by the government and the Royal British Legion) with pride. When I am on parade the medals tell people where I served. It is high time the government issued an official medal to honour all ex-National Servicemen.
In retrospect I am glad I served in the Army. I enjoy reunions, parades and similar occasions and am very happy in the company of my old comrades.
The more I take in the vitriolic comments in your columns, the more I believe that it is the writers who should be ashamed of themselves, not the honourable men they accuse of deceit. – Frank Dickinson, Shipley, West Yorkshire.

US Yanks seem to be moving down the same path. Commemorative service medals are proliferating and we have a sizable population of veterans who received little or no official recognition for their service in the form of a medal.
These span periods from the 1950s to the end of the Cold War. For some existing decorations that could have been awarded, cut-off dates were instituted which left some veterans ineligible. This includes some involved in early Cold War crises and in particular airmen lost flying airborne reconnaissance.
The views expressed by British veterans are shared here, pro and con, among our veterans over whether an official Cold War medal should be authorised and as the commemorative medals proliferate here, I expect we will see the same situation.
Excellent article and I will view with interest the debates in the UK on this issue. – M Scott, Cold War veteran, US Army.

WHY do bling medals have to have a ribbon, for without the ribbon, the medal could not be worn. – H Whitehead, Nether Poppleton, York.

THE Pingat Jasa Malaysia is an official award from one country to others within the Commonwealth so the decision on acceptance and wear should have been taken by all. We now have discrimination within the Commonwealth against Britain’s veterans as we are denied our right to wear it officially while our Australian and New Zealand comrades can wear theirs. I served in 28th Commonwealth Brigade. – David Drummond, Blantyre, Glasgow.

DURING the Malayan Emergency and Confrontation, a significant number of British Servicemen served with the Malaysian Armed Forces. Surely, at least those who served the Malaysian Government on secondment should be permitted to wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia. – Lt Col (Retd) David Twigg, former adjutant, 1st Battalion, Malaysia Rangers.

I AM shocked by the few who think ex-Servicemen and women should not wear commemorative medals. The reason is the fact that governments failed to recognise service. Member of the Royal Family wear Commonwealth medals and the Queen’s grandsons the Golden Jubilee Medal, which was her gift. But the rest of us we were not allowed to as we left her Services before the medal was awarded. – Ex-Sgt T Wise, Stamford, Lincs.

ALL this talk about bling reminds me of another medal matter, that of the Accumulated Service Medal (ACSM). The MoD still does not recognise time spent on Nato, UN, EU and some loan service operations to count towards the qualifying period for the ACSM.
It is as though the MoD is saying that time served on these operational tours is only bling time and does not count, even though the Queen has approved the wearing of many Nato, UN and EU and other medals.
Would Soldier invite somebody in authority to explain exactly why time on these tours does not count towards the ACSM?
With regard to bling, why should people not be allowed to wear unofficial medals? We all like to show off a bit and let others know where we have been, be it with medals, t-shirts, ties or wall plaques. Perhaps if the MoD had recognised, in the form of an official medal in the first place, the valuable contribution made by National Servicemen, nuclear test personnel, time in BAOR or the suffering of POWs, we would not be having this debate now. – Name and unit supplied.