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After declining an earlier interview request, Gen. Tom Lawson phoned the Citizen after Fynes’s comments were published. He said that it was never his intention to suggest that the medals would be taken back and he blamed the Citizen for deliberately misinterpreting his letter to the Fynes family.

“I’m really disappointed with the characterization in there and the conjecture that we would be taking these medals back,” he said late Tuesday. “These are not in any way being considered.”

“Never, at any time, has anyone in the Department considered revoking the awards, nor removing Cpl Langridge’s name from the Book of Remembrance,” Lawson added in an email. “To do so would be against our well established policies, and would be quite frankly dishonourable.”

But Sheila Fynes said when she read the letter her interpretation was that Lawson was clearly pointing out that the family did not deserve the medals and that the awards needed to be returned.

“He’s clearly saying these medals mean diddly squat,” she said. “What’s next? Are they going to remove Stuart’s name from the Book of Remembrance?”

Shaun Fynes also said he believed that was the message Lawson was sending. “It is a truly disgusting and heartless letter,” he said.

Langridge, a model soldier and veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan, was suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder when he killed himself in 2008. The death of the 28-year-old set off a sequence of military bungling; paperwork naming Shaun as the executor of the estate was eventually found behind a filing cabinet at CFB Edmonton, but in the meantime the military allowed another person to assume that role.