A Decorated Serviceman

  I rarely mention my medal

General Service Medal

The reason I rarely mention my medal is I don't think I deserve it.

True, as a person pointed out correctly, any British service personnel serving in Ireland during The Troubles was in a warzone. But our camp was well away from the fighting. 

I also served in Scotland, while you may not consider that a danger, I was in the Royal Air Force, on a former Royal Navy base. I was an Englishman serving in Scotland, and two of my freinds got attacked outside the base.

I served in Germany during a time when NATO was on permanent allert over the terrorist threat from the Red Army Faction, after the arrest and imprisonment of the Baader-Meinhof Group.

My grandfather was bayonetted during WW1, the ship my father was on got bombed in Alexandria, Egypt, en-roue to India. He served for two years in India at the time of the partition which created Pakistan.

I lost the medal in a house-fire several years ago, I could have bought a replica, but I never got to doing it.