New Operational Service Medal Announced

[Danjanou]

Closest I could find for you

 

[medicineman]

LOL.

MM

 

[vonGarvin]

In a word: pathetic.  The Somalia medal, which was WAAAAAAAAY overdue when finally awarded, didn't take this long!

 

[armyvern]

Got bored at work today and lo and behold, realized that us Halo vets STILL have yet to receive even an inkling of information vis a vis our (alleged) medal.  The DH&R site doesn't have any updates on it - anyone heard anything new?  Pity there isn't a smiley of gasoline and a fire...
MM

Eerily, I was just thinking about Op Halo too this morning (actually got a filing cabinet [empty!!] thrown into the dumpster with "Op Halo" label on one of the drawers). It's 5 years ago this month since you  guys deployed ... and still SFA.

That's pretty sad; it's almost as if they tossed the whole history of that mission ever occuring into the dumpster too.

 

[medicineman]

You both seem surprised - it's one of those missions that didn't seem to exist once we got there.  Not the big ticket stuff like elsewhere I guess - but that's ok, I'm used to being forgotten about  :.

MM

 

[medicineman]

Someone was reading my mind - got to work today to find an e-mail from my RSM about a CMP Townhall - one of the items "a Lebanon/haiti medal has been approved".  Well, my oblig service is done in a year and 3 months - figure the odds?

MM

 

[armyvern]

Probably for the DART missions there vice Op Halo.  Two different beasts at two different times.

Or did it actually say "Op Halo"??

 

[medicineman]

It just said "Haiti".

MM

 

[Old Sweat]

Thinking out loud and maybe not too clearly, the only thing I can think of that the most recent Haiti misssion and the Lebanon one have in common is that they both included a NEO.

 

[dapaterson]

My friend Jack deployed to Freetown on Roto 0 of OP SCULPTURE in February 2001.  (And John on Roto 1 in August '01, and so on since then)

To date, the UK has given him a decoration for that service.  Canada, nothing.

To be fair, when he was MND Mr Pratt presided over a parade where the UK decoration was officially presented (after permission had been granted to wear the foreign decoration). 

In the grand cosmic scheme of things it may not seem like much - a strip of fabric and a metal trinket.  But to those who served it's a constant reminder of their efforts, of friends and foes and times gone by.  It's really not too much to ask, is it?

 

[charlesm]

Dataperson,

  OP SCLUPTURE is on ROTO 16 I think now and still no word. I was on ROTO 14 when the rumour mill went wild saying that a medal had been approved, and it was 18 months away!!  :nod:

Some things just don't change.

 

[geo]

Charles... some things take an eternity.
At one point, sometime in the future, troops who have gone on operations and tangled with the ennemy will get a "combat action badge"...  The merits of which have been discussed in another thread on Army.ca

Also - remember how long it took to recognise the PPCLI for it's action in the Medak Pocket?

 

[Patrolman]

A couple of years ago I used to joke that I would get my CD before I received a medal for Haiti. Guess what, I will receive my CD on Monday. Last summer I asked the CLS directly about the medal, he quickly referred me to the ARMY CWO, who said it was in the works.......you know how the rest goes. Late last year I spoke with the TF Haiti RSM if he had heard anything. He said to the best of his knowledge the whole process is held up at the Senate level and the Directorate of Heritage. Essentially don't expect it anytime soon. I can retire in 7 and one half years so maybe I will be a civi when I get mine.

 

[geo]

As a civy, you could ask the GG about it - I guess...

 

[Patrolman]

That is very true. I would like to ask her now, you would think it would be a interest to her since she is from Haiti, and recently travelled there to personally see the work of Canadians and the UN operating within the country.

 

[Journeyman]

.....since she is from Haiti.

Maybe that's the problem. You don't get a medal for serving elsewhere in Canada, like floods in Manitoba or that nasty bit of snow in Toronto -- maybe she figures Op HALO was just another domestic op....CF troops serving in "her country."

 

[Quartermaster]

I recently decided to see if anyone posted any OP HALO pictures on Facebook and found a group called OP HALO Recognition.  There was recent info (albeit second-hand) from a CMP staff officer regarding the medal.  No timeline of course, but info all the same.

I also put a bug in the ear of someone who has direct face-time with the CMP and am waiting to find out if there were any positive results from that conversation.  MTF. 

 

[armyvern]

I recently decided to see if anyone posted any OP HALO pictures on Facebook and found a group called OP HALO Recognition.  There was recent info (albeit second-hand) from a CMP staff officer regarding the medal.  No timeline of course, but info all the same.

And for you Crackbookers on here ... a link to the group mentionned above.

Op Halo Recognition

 

[armyvern]

It just said "Haiti".

MM

You know, I now have a niggling suspicion that the update that you had saying

"Lebanon/Haiti"

... means that the troops involved in the very nasty work that was UN Chapter VII from Op Halo will (finally) be receiving a medal which will be identical to a medal that will be awarded to those involved in 2006's Evacuation of (debatedly stupid) Canadian (also debateable) 'citizens' from Lebanon via Cyprus.

Hoping my suspicions are wrong.

 

[medicineman]

Me too - if they were that hard up to do a medal, they could have just struck a bar for the GCS or the SSM and I think most of us (well at least me  ) would be happy - it's the acknowledgement that something happened and we went there to settle it.  You think they're trying to come up with a NEO medal?

MM