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
