My uncle visitied arnhem recently with some of the other paratroopers who fought there and survived, he was very ill at the time and was in a wheelchair, some of the other old boys who went back with him went across the bridge with the officer who escorted them down there, my uncle asked to remain on this side, he then got himself up out of the chair when they werent looking, and crawled up and across the bridge, much to the surprise of the officer there, who wanted to know what the old fool was doing.
"I didnt manage to get myself across here the last time I came, so I was determined I would this time Sir" was his reply.
He's got a little certificate at home that the officer wrote out to certify that he had seen him cross the bridge, probably sounds stupid to most folk, but Im pretty proud of him, its a strength of character our generation doesnt seem to possess very often but was common in his.

 

there is a cannon memorial by the bridge iirc and a memorial just down the road abit in the centre of a roundabout with underpasses leading to it for pedestrians. i lived about a mile up the road . ive not been there since 2001 though. one of our workers crashed into the roundabout memorial whilst drunk. that didnt endear us or our company greatly to the locals at the time but generally the locals,younger and older still hold the british in high regard.the dutch crane driver on site lowered his crane arm to allow me to tie a huge union flag to the end to fly over the site.
not many locals would do that for an immigrant worker anywhere else.

 

thats what makes me respect old folks and makes me stop whatever im doing every 11/11 at 11 am.that is what we need today IMO!

 

im proud to have a royal family tbh. nice to have some decent history to a country and not a nothing like a lot of the other countries around the world.

if your from this country have some respect ffs.

there medals arent just there you go your royal etc. im sure they have done more to earn them medals than most on here including myself.

a lot of my family have served with the forces past and present and they have medals. i wouldnt look at them and say did you get that in ya cracker cause you aint done much for £17k a yr in Iraq, or in Falklands, WW2 etc.