Over 2,300 Norwegian veterans from the UNIFIL operation in Lebanon between 1978 and 1998 will be awarded medals next month.
It’s 40 years this year, since Norway contributed, for the first time, soldiers for the UN operation. It is also 20 years since the contribution was completed in 1998.
In this jubilee year, the Armed Forces will honor and acknowledge the veterans who served in Lebanon. It is the Armed Forces medal for international operations to be distributed throughout the country on 6 April.
Since this medal was not instituted until 2000, there are still many veterans who have not been honored this way, the Defense Veteran Service reports in a press release.
It was during Easter 1978 that the first Norwegian soldiers were sent to the UNIFIL operation in Lebanon. When the mission ended 20 years later, over 22,000 Norwegians had participated. What should have been a short-term peacekeeping operation ended up spreading over decades.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
