The Royal British Legion launch 2018 Poppy Appeal
But the former serviceman found one of his tributes ripped off a lamp-post and burnt on the floor in the street of Cookfield on Friday evening.
The father-of-two, who served in the Army from 1999 to 2008 said people do not understand the true meaning of the poppy.
He said: "I've done time in the Army and it hurts more because people don't understand the true meaning.
“I felt anger and rage. We went and put up another one and replaced it straight away.
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"It had been burnt and left on the floor. It had been ripped off the lamp-post on the corner where kids hang out at the village.
"It might be kids. But I don't think it was anything planned, I don't think it was anything premeditated, but they don't realise how hurtful it can be.
"When you put your time and effort into making the village look better, it puts a downer on everything and you wonder they aren't educated."
The vandalism is one of a number of incidents taking place during the Poppy Appeal.
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Campaigns have also been set up to take action against poppy sellers by so-called 'poppy patrols’.
A group named ‘Anti Imperialist Action Ireland’ said the crackdown in the Irish city of Dublin was in a bid to “challenge” poppy sellers who “support British Imperialism”.
This year's commemoration marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.