Over the 44 years of the so-called "Cold War" hundreds of UK service personnel lost their lives in pursuit of an operational capability deemed necessary to deter Warsaw Pact aggression. We believe the service and sacrifice of those who died and survivors has not been adequately recognised.
Before the Cold War becomes a totally forgotten part of the peace dividend, we believe it would be appropriate to provide recognition of the contribution made by the Cold War veterans of all three Services who served in that 44 year period of our post WW2 history, through a new medal.
Viewed against the many thousands of veterans who served in the 44 years of the Cold War, the potential cost of issuing medals to all Service personnel might be huge. If this this proposal to retrospectively award some form of medal is taken forward, qualifying personnel should be encouraged to apply for the award, but provision of the medal itself should be at cost - it should not be provided free of charge.