 Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for New Forest East, Colonel Terry Scriven, is pressing the Ministry of Defence to recognise the service of the 4.5 million servicemen and women who have become our ‘Forgotten Heroes’ by the award of a National Defence medal.
It is a time of great outpouring of support for our Armed Services by the public and a professed support for restoring the military covenant by the Government and the leaders of all political parties.
Evidence of appropriate recognition for the award of a medal in addition to the veterans badge to those who have served in the Armed Forces since the end of the Second World War is overwhelming.
The lack of recognition of our ‘Forgotten Heroes’ includes service in Korea (post armistice); the Berlin Airlift; the Cold War, where hundreds of our service men and women died on duty and many more were discharged as a result of their injuries; the IRA atrocities outside of Northern Ireland which saw our soldiers killed and maimed on the streets of Germany and in England, and of course National Service veterans who are now in their 70s and 80s.
Colonel Terry Scriven, who is the co-Chairman of the National Defence Medal campaign said, “I hope that as this campaign grows with public support the Government, whose responsibility it is to decide on a medal of recognition of service, will speedily review this situation just as they did with the Gurkha campaign”.
It is also hoped that the medal would be awarded posthumously to the families of those who died on duty whilst serving in the Forces.
Terry and his campaign colleagues have invited the Prime Minister and the leaders of the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrat Party and UKIP together with other MPs who have shown support for this medal; and Directors of interested organisations such as the Royal British Legion, to what is a fresh launch of this campaign.”
British Forces Broadcasting Service Television is attending the re-launch of the campaign in London. It is hoped that the launch will be broadcast to all countries where our armed forces are serving.
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