I have been helping to organise next Saturday's V Force reunion at Newark Aircraft Museum. Most of the 200 or so attending will come into the category of "cold war warriors", and apart from the odd GSM and AFC there will be few who can claim the chestful of medals rightly adorning the uniforms of their younger RAF successors.
I dont think many of us feel we were badly rewarded for our service - I have made my objection to a Cold War medal clear in the past as being unnecessary and inappropriate - the whole point of a cold war is that it isn't a shooting war, so why the need for medals?
Those who were on duty in October 1962 at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, sitting bombed-up and ready to fly to all points east are going to be interviewed by the BBC at Newark for a projected programme on the crisis. Those are guys who very nearly took part in the ultimate shooting war - ironically one for which I suspect no medals would have been awarded!