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Special Service Medal - Domestic Operations Bar

The questions always come down to eligibility.

"For Op LENTUS in Ontario, it's the medal for 15 days deployed, plus a bar for every 128 sandbags filled."

We’ve managed to skin that cat for every other gong. I don’t accept that having to awkwardly pick a number between 30 and 180 is an actual barrier to proper regocnition. I realize the army fills most of those tasks yet can’t count that high, but there’s bound to be an RCAF staff officer in a purple billet who can arbitrarily pick a suitable figure.

Set it high-but-achievable, and you’ll also probably see a minor boost to force generation come LENTUS season.
 
I had a similar idea awhile ago about recognizing CF service in Canada with a new medal, which I thought could be called the "National Emergency Medal" (or something along that line). This was to have bars for various crisis and/or emergencies such as; FLQ, OKA, ICE STORM, WILD FIRES, FLOOD, etc. I realize that it's unlikely to ever happen, but I think that Canada should recognize do something to recognize exceptional service in Canada in emergency situations. BTW, I envisioned that this would be available to award to first responders as well as the military.
 
BTW, I envisioned that this would be available to award to first responders as well as the military.

That would be very kind of Ottawa.

General Rohmer ( our Honorary Chief ) pinned their 20-year ESM, with a 10-year Bar, on me after 34 years on the job.

There were many others that day. Some with more time in than myself, or posthumous.

A nice souvenir. I've never worn it.

The General did likewise with the medal and ribbon from our Dept..
For showing up for 12 years, with a Bar every 10 years thereafter.

I wore that one instead. Because I wore a municipal, rather than federal, uniform. Also because it meant more to me on a personal level knowing where it came from.

Medals are nice.

But, on 9-1-1 operations, what you notice on the street is the lower left sleeve. One leaf for every five years on the job.
 
BTW, I envisioned that this would be available to award to first responders as well as the military.
With the exception of purely military honours and awards (CD, ORMM, CV, VC) first responders are already eligible to receive service medals for deployed operations. Why would a domops medal be any different? Not too long ago a member of my agency was awarded the MSM (Civilian Division).
 
I was just making the point that I didn't envision it to be a strictly military honour, but a national one that would be available to those who participated in a national emergency, be they civilian or military. Not that it really matters, as I'm sure the Gov't of Canada will never issue a National Emergency Medal (they would've done so long ago if they had been interested in honouring such service with a separate medal).
 
As a guy who has fallen in recognition vacuums and missed my cd and other long service medals for various reasons- I have always found Canadas honours system very interesting.

You can have “this” for doing nothing given by a politician with an allotment- and if you stay around long enough you’ll have enough of these that people will assume you ve done something. Hell I know a couple operational medals that imply something where they actually did nothing.

But then on domops fighting forest fire for months- or working in generally miserable circumstances on behalf of Canadians- nothing. I should put an asterisk on that though- the senior officers organizing things will get a commendation. We received a letter thanking us for getting it for them.

There’s nothing wrong with giving a guy a ribbon on his uniform that says they worked in shitty circumstances on behalf of Canadians. Even if it was their “job”.

“But where does it stop?” Who cares. If it’s a useless bauble they have to sleep at night knowing it’s all they have.

And I’m in no danger of getting one 🤷‍♀️
 
I was just making the point that I didn't envision it to be a strictly military honour, but a national one that would be available to those who participated in a national emergency, be they civilian or military. Not that it really matters, as I'm sure the Gov't of Canada will never issue a National Emergency Medal (they would've done so long ago if they had been interested in honouring such service with a separate medal).
The national emergency medal will only be available if people are working under the emergencies act 🤡
 
Not that it really matters, as I'm sure the Gov't of Canada will never issue a National Emergency Medal (they would've done so long ago if they had been interested in honouring such service with a separate medal).

Looks like only Australia awards it. And not without controversy regarding volunteers.


 

The National Emergency Medal was approved in October 2011 for award to members of eligible organisations or individuals who rendered qualifying service in response to nationally significant emergencies within Australia.

While each National Emergency is separately declared, all identify eligible sustained service as service by a person in response to the declared emergency. Each person must have rendered at least five days service within the response phase of the emergency. Individuals who rendered service in the recovery phase of these nationally-significant emergencies and served outside of the date ranges outlined in the determinations are not eligible for this award.
 
As a guy who has fallen in recognition vacuums and missed my cd and other long service medals for various reasons- I have always found Canadas honours system very interesting.

You can have “this” for doing nothing given by a politician with an allotment- and if you stay around long enough you’ll have enough of these that people will assume you ve done something. Hell I know a couple operational medals that imply something where they actually did nothing.

But then on domops fighting forest fire for months- or working in generally miserable circumstances on behalf of Canadians- nothing. I should put an asterisk on that though- the senior officers organizing things will get a commendation. We received a letter thanking us for getting it for them.

There’s nothing wrong with giving a guy a ribbon on his uniform that says they worked in shitty circumstances on behalf of Canadians. Even if it was their “job”.

“But where does it stop?” Who cares. If it’s a useless bauble they have to sleep at night knowing it’s all they have.

And I’m in no danger of getting one 🤷‍♀️

A substantial part of our H&A isn't about recognition of service, it's about political patronage.

This form of patronage is a feature of the Canadian Political System, not an aberration.

The medals themselves are merely a political projection of what the Government at the time thinks is important, hence why we have no DOMOPS medal but every Tom, Tammy, Dick, Deidre, Harry & Hillary that served during the 90s has one of these meaningless gongs:

cpsm_front_gg05-2017-0400-033.jpg



Oh.... Commendations and things like OMMs, Meritorious Service, Jubilees, Orders of X etc are a lot of the time, just padding to make someone look impressive:

E.g.

images


Then Made CDS, and like a Call of Duty DLC purchase pack:

1677167174320.jpeg

Can't have the boss in front of the camera's looking like a lowly Captain 😆
 
The criteria for the SSM - NATO misses the hundreds of PRes who did flyover in the late 60's and early 70"s i.e. Operation Orion Express. Average time was 100 days. Additionally, during the Prague Spring period*, hundreds of RegF reinforcements from the soon to be disbanded QOR of C, Canadian Guards etc arrived. 4 CMBG was approx 400 Km from the Czech border and approx 500 Km from Prague. A hot time 1968.
Not eligible for SSM, yet modern criteria is 30 days or so for current Ops.

*On the night of 20–21 August, Eastern Bloc armies from four Warsaw Pact countries—the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary—invaded the ČSSR.
That night, 200,000 troops and 2,000 tanks entered the country.They first occupied the Ruzyně International Airport, where air deployment of more troops was arranged. The Czechoslovak forces were confined to their barracks, which were surrounded until the threat of a counter-attack was assuaged. By the morning of 21 August Czechoslovakia was occupied.


SSM - NATO
(Amended by PC 2018-124, 9 FEB 2018)

NATO service between 1951 and 2004:

An aggregate of 180 days of honourable service within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) area of responsibility between 1 January 1951 and 19 October 2004. Qualifying service is service while posted to a NATO unit, or to a Canadian Forces or allied formation or unit outside territorial limits of Canada under the operational control of a NATO headquarters, or in Canada on an operational staff directly participating in the operational control of such formations and units. In the latter case, only those staff personnel serving in an operations room directly participating in the control of ships and aircraft in NATO operations and exercises qualify for this service. Persons in eligible positions or operations on 19 October 2004 continue to count their time under this criteria until the end of that posting or deployment. Not all time served in Europe nor at sea can be counted towards this bar.

NATO service since 2004 to Present:

An aggregate of 45 days of honourable service performed in approved locations or tasks outside Canada beginning on or after 20 October 2004 as part or in direct support of NATO operations or missions, provided the service in question is not counted towards another medal. For more details, consult the Eligible Service List (accessible only on the Government of Canada network).

Service in NATO transformation establishments, schools and colleges, NATO training, exercises, conferences, and other similar service not in direct support of NATO Ops remains excluded from eligibility.

Personnel who have eligible service under the 1951–2004 criteria but did not meet the 180 day criteria, and also have eligible service under the 2004-onward criteria, shall be allowed to combine all the eligible days of service towards the minimum of 45 cumulative days of eligible service criteria.

Multiplying factors no longer exist
 
We can't issue people a CD or bar until several years after the event anniversary. Never mind trying to mint a new medal or even reissue an existing one with a different ribbon. Many of those on DomOps are/ were Reservists. Many of those have released over the years. Good luck tracking them down. Even if they are still serving, the administration and fuckery that goes along with issuing this will ensure it never sees the light of day. Our tradition of issuing Awards and Decorations is absolutely dismal and demoralizing. It will never be fixed by Ottawa. Look at the fiasco every time the try to issue a Sovereigns Anniversary gong. And that one is a no brainer. Don't give them anything complicated, they can't wrap their heads around it.
 
Lots of talk of medals and awards, but with most things the past few governments have killed it off or ignored it. If you joined the military in hopes of coming home with a chest full of medals to impress your non military friends with, you joined the wrong military.

Canadian governments like the military but only when it serves the policies of that Government or gives them a good photo op. Forgotten the rest of the time
 
Im Pretty sure giving a medal for domestic operations fits perfectly into the photo op agenda though. And it’s a medal for non military stuff. Double win for these ten ply governments
 
Lots of talk of medals and awards, but with most things the past few governments have killed it off or ignored it. If you joined the military in hopes of coming home with a chest full of medals to impress your non military friends with, you joined the wrong military.

Canadian governments like the military but only when it serves the policies of that Government or gives them a good photo op. Forgotten the rest of the time
There are still lots of deployments happening, just not necessarily on the army side, and the criteria for medals was changed so that shorter missions would be recognized.
 
There was talk of a OP Nanook medal and was pushed forward by the CO of HMCS Harry DeWolf, sounds like it didn't go anywhere.
 
There was talk of a OP Nanook medal and was pushed forward by the CO of HMCS Harry DeWolf, sounds like it didn't go anywhere.

I thought we had some sort of polar or arctic medal ? I 100% could be wrong...
 
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