On the medal side of things, my old man never collected any of his. Absolutely hated the method of selecting who won the award. A lot of the time many more deserving people never awarded anything purely because they didn't get their name pulled out of a hat.
Made one exception, under duress of the family, the recent Malaysian award for service. Mainly as he has some artwork from the conflict and the medal would complete it.
Great story on the Chinook crew.