The Cold War Warriors [at least the British ones] were and are very light on gongs. Better to be bare-breasted than incinerated, and for those many who had overseas tours, there were certainly compensations that outweighed any campaign medal.
The small support groups of specialists who deployed just about wherever there was an RAF detachment hoovered up all manner of NATO and foreign awards.in some very nasty and dangerous places. A friend who was in the Mobile Met. Unit has no fewer than ten, plus the Air Efficiency. A very small number also had S Atlantic and the odd honour. That's a lorralorra medals. Of course the downside for the Met Office as such was having to backfill the holes that these sudden deployments caused. S Met Os really did not want an MMU volunteer on their books ........... here today, gone tomorrow..