Originally Posted by
Fortissimo
So where would you place the Nimrod R crews in this? Some of their now unclassified missions were definitely on the risky side. Baltic, east of the North Cape etc. Or the handful of Canberra crews who did solo recce flights into USSR? Or the WIWOLs on QRA trips into the Iceland Faroes gap with an unreliable jet, no real navaids and a fuel gauge that was calibrated between not enough and pitiful?
There were/are ways of recognising particularly valuable service. To lump them in with anyone who participated in the cold war, which is basically anyone in uniform at the time, would do them no favours.