There's a wider issue here, about how we treat our service people in general. Having just returned from a tour with the US, I was amazed to see the fuss made about promotions, medals, retirements etc. Families are invited, speeches made, national anthem played, oath of alliegance re-taken etc etc. They are genuinely proud of their service, and their nation takes great pride in honouring that. Now, I don't advocate that we do all that (we're British, after all), but some more formal recognition of time served, and the sacrifies we all make (including our families) during that time would be better than the 'hand in your 1250 and there's the door' approach we have at the moment. The veterans' lapel badge bought in by Bliar is not exactly what I had in mind, either...