Very true. There's certainly a feeling of 'Yeah, you did 22 years, so what? You got paid didn't you?' in the UK. Very little respect given (if any) to ex servicemen here except amongst ourselves. When I was doing the Aviano detatchments back in the 90's the USAF transports used to come in regularly with some elderley folk on board. They were US vets who could travel for peanuts and have a cheap holiday in Italy.
Could you imagine that in the RAF, there's your butty box, if you squeeze past the freight you'll find a seat down the back of the Herc somewhere.