...and the anniversary awards continue........
I look about every six months or so on line to see what is out there and now the Argentine awards for the Falklands War are truly staggering in number.
So far there are the basic federally issued campaign medals (at least 4 different issue dates now), then the navy's issued medals, then police force medals, then provincial commemorative medals, then municipal/ town medals, then Veterans Association medals AND now Red Cross medals! ALSO, the Argentine National telephone Company issued a Malvinas veterans' medal!
......AND... there are commemorative badges, flags, patches and baseball caps !!!!
THEN there are federal bravery awards, the federal medal for those killed in combat, thefederal wound medal and a combat medal (as opposed to an 'I was there medal' ) as well as the same for the navy (which seems to duplicate many federal awards).
And JUST TODAY...I have discovered.......
(drum roll).....
REGIMENTAL MEDALS!!!!!!
Interestingly the federal campaign medals may have been reissued as the classes of people awarded the medals (and the pensions) expanded. Originally the medals were for military personnel only, then noncombatants who had been in the war zone, then merchant marines and coast guards, then the police, then other civilians (notably journalists and film makers)....and now next of kin are regularly awarded the provincial awards and other non-federal medals.
The Argentines may have lost the war, but they are certainly winning the national medal issue competition.