It is right that we honor the fallen servicemen and women of this country for they have made the ultimate sacrifice in our name.
It is not right that we treat those who have not died but have been horrendously wounded with less honor.
I read today that Ben Parkinson, the most seriously injured surviving British soldier, will not receive his full compensation package of over £1 million but will have it capped at the £570k he has received already leaving him to rely on NHS services that are over stretched and not suited to dealing with those suffering this kind of battlefield trauma. The reason he will have to rely on the NHS is because he will be discharged from his beloved job on medical grounds.
I seem to remember the RAF doing this a few years ago to a chap called Douglas Bader. And look at what he went on to become.
Ben Parkinson is an inspiration. Just like Simon Weston was, following the Falklands, Ben has shown men with lesser injuries that there is a way forward. We cannot stand by and let the administrative staff in the Army, most of who quite frankly have never ventured outside their cosy little offices, to ruin the treatment programme for rehabilitation that has been devised for Ben.
The closure of the dedicated military hospitals and the reliance on Headley Court and medical wings of NHS hospitals was never going to compensate for places such as RAF Wroughton, Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot and RN Hospital Haslar. It was always short sighted of the bureaucrats and politicians to close specialist military hospitals and although we shouted loud in the 1980's and 90's no one wanted to know.
If we are to be the best then we must act like the best and if that means spending some money on our injured veterans then so be it. I would rather that than some of the potty projects governments come up with.
And as the sun goes down I say that we should honor the living as well as remember the dead.
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