If you join a regiment in the Army, you always belong to it - even when you retire. It's a family. True, some people belong more than others; my DH was never "Army barmy", but he still has friends who were in the same regiment and they get together from time to time; about the only time he wears his medals these days is at official reunions and he doesn't go to many of those. My father never wore his medals. I don't think he even looked at them. His attitude was that he didn't join the Army, he was called up, and therefore had no sense of belonging afterward. He was just proud to have done his duty like all the other men. He did, however, treasure his cap badge (which I still have). He said it was the only thing that went right through the war with him and he would have been upset to lose it.