Former Royal Marines Commando: Why I don't wear my medals on Remembrance Sunday
A Royal Marine veteran whose left arm and right leg had to be amputated after he stepped on a Taliban landmine during his first tour of duty in Afghanistan has spoken about why he doesn't wear his two military medals on Remembrance Sunday.
Ben McBean took to TikTok and X to post a video explaining his choice, saying he doesn't feel like he did enough in his career to be stood proudly wearing "two little medals".
Hi spost prompted a flurry of responses online such as: "Mine are in my sock drawer where I put them when I left after 24 years," and "Wear your medals, young man, not just for you, but for all the men and women who've served/are still serving."
But, for Mr McBean, who jokes about being a TikToker at 39, it's simpler than that. He says: "Some guys wear a tie, poppy, beret, medals [but] I don't.
"It's not about me... it's about remembering the fallen."
On Remembrance Sunday, Mr McBean wears a fleece with a poppy and for him, that's enough, but he doesn't judge others for proudly wearing their medals.
He said: "I think it's cool... when you see people with medals on their chest and berets on and you see proper old veterans going around and stuff like that.
"But I suppose maybe [with the] younger generation, it kind of dies down a little bit because, as each year goes by, the gap gets bigger between those wars and what we know."
For Mr McBean, Remembrance Sunday is a day to honour those who died in all wars but for him, personally, it's a day to remember his friends who died in service of their country.
As a modern veteran, he struggles to connect with the traditional, sombre part of Remembrance Sunday.
Instead, his focus is getting to a pub in The Hoe in Plymouth afterwards where he'll be surrounded by hundreds of other veterans who he can relate to.
He said: "We're not having a pint talking about World War Two.
"We're talking about Afghanistan, Iraq and [over there] they're talking about the Falklands.
"So it's not to take away from their day, it's weirdly ours as well, if you know what I mean?"
Not shame, not disrespect
He jokingly suggests that if he had five medals, he might think differently but knowing himself he wouldn't even wear them.
In response to comments left online, such as "Never be ashamed of your gongs Royal. Wear those f****** with pride. You've earned em", Mr McBean is keen to say his decision to not wear them isn't meant to be disrespectful and is not out of shame at not having more medals.
He says it's cool that other veterans have come out in support of his decision not to wear his military medals, expressing their desire to remember in their own way.
He said: "The chances of me being the only one who thinks the way I think is slim so that's why I do my videos."
'I wouldn't be digging them up'
The Royal Marine veteran said his medical discharge from the Armed Forces was so abrupt that it felt like a chapter in his life was over and that he didn't get to say goodbye.
He was given a box filled with everything left behind in Camp Bastion after the explosion – but he doesn't know where his medals are.
He said: "Remembrance, it's not about me.
"My medals are in the house somewhere, [but] I wouldn't be digging them up.
"I literally go pay my respects and I'll just leave."
And, as one person who commented below his video said: "You do as you want mate, you've earned that at least."
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