(As if he hadn't done enough serving in the Falklands...!)
Friday is National Veterans' Day proper. It comes in dark days for the Parachute Regiment – Afghanistan producing one of the blackest periods in the distinguished regiment's history since the Falklands War in the 1980s. Five Para deaths last week alone.
"It still hits you hard," says former Private Tony Barlow, 46, of Freckleton, who served with the Parachute Regiment, 3rd Battalion, in the Falklands.
He engaged in the fiercest hand to hand fighting ,with the Argies, using fixed bayonets. It started the moment his regiment, the 3rd, hit the ground running across treacherous bogland, and under heavy sniper fire.
And he was there for the Troubles in Northern Ireland, too, in the aftermath of Warrenpoint and the 18 soldiers slain in two remote control bomb attacks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army – and for all the recriminations that followed.
Today Tony's concerned at the casualties of a hidden war– the battle faced by ex-servicemen, young and old, fighting to rebuild lives on civvy street.
He knows so many succumb to depression, to drink, to divorce, and the ultimate self inflicted wound, suicide.
"Our veterans don't get the support the Americans do – they're treated like heroes long after they leave, get discounts, help. We get nothing."
His own fight for work, after serving in the proud Paras, rankles to this day.
He found the civilian job of his dreams thanks to an ex-girlfriend who got him the application form and he loves his work as a firefighter with the St Annes based rope rescue squad.
He's able to use the discipline and skills
acquired in the British Army. He admits the tough training channelled his aggression and saved him from taking the wrong path.
"At 15, when I first got introduced to the army, I could have easily gone wrong."
Para Barlow's spectacular white knuckle stunt, from the top of a Tower where winds often reach 80mph, may seem like a doddle for a paratrooper, let alone one working with the firefighters' specialist rope rescue team.
"Far from it," says Tony. "I only learned to abseil the other day! I'll be doing it for other veterans, to show the world that we're still there, and in memory of every veteran who has died or suffered in any conflict.
"It's the most positive message I could send out in veterans' week. The Paras were the making of me. Discipline has broken down in society. We're too soft. I learned discipline, that if I worked hard I got rewards and bonded with like-minded men.
"But what pushed me to the limit was the lack of support when I left to make a new life. I'm doing this abseil for every veteran who's found that hard, too. We're the forgotten ones. But you know what? I'd do it all again tomorrow if I could."
l Para Barlow's Veterans Badge Challenge abseil starts at 11.20am on Friday .
"KEEP your nose clean and you'll be fine."
Those were the words Lyndon Evans' father spoke to him the day he joined the Royal Navy in 1969 as a fresh faced 15-year-old.
The youngster left school one Friday and was in uniform ready to board HMS Ganges by the Monday. Nearly four decades on Lyndon, who now runs Manor Grove Guest House on Leopold Grove in Blackpool, says it was the making of him and "would recommend the Royal Navy to anyone."
He said: "I was the fourth generation in my family to join the Royal Navy. It's just something I decided to do and my father was very proud. I think it's a good thing for young people – they learn about discipline and respect in the armed forces."
As an able seaman and deep sea diver in the Royal Navy until 1975 he travelled the world...until his wife gave him his orders to come home that is!
Lyndon, 54, confessed: "I was one and a half minutes late to the birth of my first child, Barry, and the next time I saw him he was 13 months old. I promised Hazel I wouldn't miss the next one. I stuck to my promise and was there when Christopher was born."
But despite missing his family while out at sea, Lyndon talks fondly of the wealth of experiences he enjoyed aboard HMS Ganges, HMS Bulwark and HMS Hermes.
He said: "We worked on beach and harbour defence. It was all very covert. We'd do a lot of exercises like removing mines, laying limpet mines on enemy vessels and cutting the wires of harbours to let the submarines in.
"I must have gone around the world six times. I remember one time we were in the middle of the Pacific and the skipper stopped the ship for 'hands to bathe'. All the watches swam in the sea with marine shooters keeping a lookout for sharks. If you heard the whistle you swam like an Olympic champion to get out of the water away from the sharks!"
Unlucky for Lyndon, he'll have no such help when he takes on the ultimate challenge of diving with sharks at Blackpool Sealife Centre on National Veterans' Day.
The brave veteran, who will enter a shark-infested tank to collect his Veterans' Badge at 8am on Friday June 27, said: "I've been told they're tame... from the gills down at least!"
But Lyndon is accustomed to facing tense and testing times. He recalls losing a helicopter and its crew when on HMS Hermes looking for missing fishing vessel Gaul in 1974.
He said: "We had terrible storms, it was very rough. We were up near the ice packs so they would have only had seconds to survive in those freezing temperatures. I was on my watch and it was virtually dark all the time. We only found the wheel of the helicopter. It really brings it home how precious life can be and makes you want to live life to the full as much as you can." And with six grand-children to run around after and a popular hotel to manage, he doesn't stop.