foresterab
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And final set of Operations:
Special Service Medal - Domestic Operations Bar
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foresterab
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There are quite a few more Domestic Operations added in here. I will be the first to admit I'm still missing many as I'm using Google vs. Regimental histories/Ship Logs etc. to add them all up especially as a person moves further back.
But for grouping of what OPERATIONS I clustered:
There is also a significant increase in the mid-2000's:
However the more recent Operations are still dwarfed by the CAF involvement in the 1970's for the FLQ Crisis and 1976 Montreal Games:
But for grouping of what OPERATIONS I clustered:
There is also a significant increase in the mid-2000's:
However the more recent Operations are still dwarfed by the CAF involvement in the 1970's for the FLQ Crisis and 1976 Montreal Games:
Castus
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Excellent and comprehensive work. Well done.
Haggis
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You're missing Op FEATHER/AKWESASNE. May to December 1990, ON/QC, 1600. Assistance to Law Enforcement. Other than that, great work!
daftandbarmy
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I want a badge to cover the emotional scars I sustained during the frenzied planning stages...
Blackadder1916
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Here's a few others,
OP MAGNET(s) - I, II, III Vietnamese refugee assistance operations with elements both overseas (airlift) and in Canada (reception centers in Edmonton and Montreal)
1978 Commonwealth Games Edmonton
OP BILBO - ordnance clearance of Sarcee Training Area
Unexploded Ordnance in Southwest Calgary
OP MORNING LIGHT - 1978 search and clean-up of crashed nuclear powered Soviet satellite Kosmos 954
And then there were a few operations that if done in Canada would have been "domestic" but since we were stationed in Germany our "domestic" (i.e., non NATO) was overseas - two examples.
OP DOLOMITE - disaster response to earthquake in Italy (because it was in the 1970s, was not recognized by HUMANITAS bar to SSM which was only for ops from 1985 onward)
OP UNARMED WARRIOR
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Canada doesn't do numerals on Canadian medals, a rotation bar system like the GCS/GSM/OSM would make sense.
foresterab
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Thank you all,
Will add them to my list. In regards to OP DOLOMITE I would not consider it normally as it was overseas which is what the SSM "HUMANTIS" award should cover...unfortunately when you start counting award dates from is also an issue. OP MAGNET would count for the Canadian aspects but the overseas should be the SSM"HUMANTIS" award...although I will need to read up on these.
I've also been trying to understand better how the CAF is called out to domestic operations and trying to write up what I've found out and where/when it appears there are big changes in priorities. For those of you who have served much of it might be common knowledge but for myself as a civilian it's been a challenge to unravel.
Arctic Operations are also a big question mark as I read about EXERCISE ARCTIC RAM, NORTHERN BISON, STALWART GOOSE, ARCTIC EAGLE-PATRIOT, ICE EXERCISE, NOBLE DEFENDER, ARCTIC EDGE and GUERRIER NORDIQUE as to whether they should also be added to list. There has been a significant increase in CAF Arctic OPS since the early 2000's but I don't know enough to determine if they are annual training or a specific multi-government Arctic response. I was trying to avoid counting annual training operations like MAPLE FLAG but the line gets blurry quick.
foresterab
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Part of the challenge of this exercise is each time I find out about one set of OPS more are found. You've also put me onto:
UGANDA 1972 - Uganda evacuations in 1972 to CFB Montreal
PARASOL - Albanian evacuations in 1999 to CFB Trenton
AEGIS - Afghanistan evacuations in 2021 - Overlap with SSM Humantis Award?
LUMEN - Lebanon evacuations in 2023 - Overlap with SSM Humantis Award?
LION - Lebanon evacuations in 2006 - Overlap with SSM Humantis Award?
MOBILE - Libyan evacuations in 2011- Overlap with SSM Humantis Award
SAVANNE - Sudan evacuations in 2023 - Overlap with SSM Humantis Award?
PRINCIPAL - Haiti evacuations in 2004 - Overlap with SSM Humantis Award?
ION - Israel evacuations in 2023 - Overlap with SSM Humantis Award?
Many of these evacuation type missions have been overseas and would be considered under the SSM Award criteria already established. I am less clear about the support from within Canada - no overseas deployment - and how they align. A CAF member with more expertise would need to be setting the criteria.
As I understand it OP PARASOL for example involved CAF members overseas (SSM Humantis award eligible) and then additional resources were mobilized to receive refugees in Canada (unclear if this counted to the SSM or not).
daftandbarmy
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foresterab
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I'm not sure what you mean by EBGO ? It looks like Canada calls these Non-Combat Evacuation Operations (NEO) but many of them also seem to appear under the qualifying awards for the Special Service Medal...which is what I would think the HUMANTIS Bar is meant to acknowledge.Your list would make a great submission for another EBGO-type medal for the CAF!
Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations (NEO) - Canada.ca
A Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) is a military operation conducted to assist Global Affairs Canada (GAC) in evacuating Canadians and eligible persons from threatening circumstances in a foreign nation and moving them to a safe haven.
I also still feel like I'm missing some of these but again my Google Fu is weak this morning to find more.
Many of these have also been the evacuation to a nearby safe location (OP ION evacuations from Israel to Greece for example) and did not involve direct returns back to Canada. For these type of missions or for missions outside of Canada the SSM still seems to be the proper award in my mind.
OPS MAGNET, MAGNET II, MAGNET III and PARASOL were different as they involved direct transportation to a CAF Base until civilian/non-CAF resources could accommodate the refugees. More complex and would need someone (not me) to evaluate which resources and/or parts of the OP counts where.
daftandbarmy
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Blackadder1916
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The SSM Humanitas bar was discontinued 31 July 2009 and replaced with a separate medal, the Operational Service Medal, Humanitas. Missions that are eligible for the OSM Humanitas as well as for other OSMs (e.g., OSM Epedition) include some of the ones you listed.
Appendix 8 – Eligible service lists - Canada.ca
Provides Forces personnel with the rules and regulations for wearing, replacing and recommending national honours and awards.
Service within Canada has never counted towards any bar to the SSM except for the Ranger and Alert bars.
CountDC
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It also doesn't do the medal that is under discussion either. Changes can be made. With the number of DOMOPs a person could go on would bars make sense as some members would have too many for one medal to hold.
from 2010 to 2016, the CAF responded on average to 1.7 domestic emergencies per year. From 2017 to 2023, that number increased to an average of 4.7 domestic emergencies per year
That's a lot of bars that could have been earned with more to come. If someone did every op that would be a medal with 44 bars. Not likely to happen but even if they did one a year it would be a medal with 13 bars. There are some reservists that will volunteer for every op they can. How many times have we deployed reservists from Ontario to help with Quebec flooding even though they were not always welcomed?
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Adding a DOMOPSSM to the system as it already exists makes more sense than inventing a new system.
The way the bars for the "SM" medals works is that you get a rotation bar for every 180 day period after the medal qualifying period. Eg. When I got the bar to the GCS I was at 210 days on GCS qualifying Ops. 30 for the medal, and a further 180 for the bar. After four bars, you get a single bar that represents 5 bars. The likelihood that anyone will spend more than 1000 days on DOMOPS is pretty slim.
Clarity and consistency are important with H&A. It just makes sense to track CFTPO days on DOMOPS in general and stick to a bar/rotation system that is already in place and understood.
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Hell OSM - Domestic. Just make the ribbon the inverse of the HUMANITAS one (Red with white trim).
Make the criteria the same, however, for DOMOPs.
daftandbarmy
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Just be careful what criteria is adopted.
If you don't get a medal for getting called out to do fire cleanup etc for 'only 2 weeks', you won't get as many reservists volunteering as you'd expect.
Without a medal? Hell yeah they'll turn up ...
foresterab
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My experience with deployments - from a provincial perspective only - is you volunteer to go on the deployment....and while they are normally two weeks long it might end sooner due to weather or be extended depending on the situation. The days are irrelevant to a certain aspect as we tend to track credit for deployments vs. days served when looking at certifications/evaluations. Note that this is not the same in all provinces and some require X days for certification in roles...there's a wide mix of methods used out there.
My personal belief is if you're tasked to deploy on a mission you're eligible for the base medal assuming you were activated. It's the folks that have spent months and years on Domestic Ops over their career that create the tougher discussion piece. Currently for the SSM and ALERT award it's a 180 days of combined time to be eligible. When I consider that many events are measured in weeks vs. months I do start question if this is the right standard as even for someone like myself who deploys every summer it would take me 3-6 years to hit that 180 day limit of days on fires (note I'm not CAF and I only use this as an illustration of the challenges involved).
I have proposed a 30 day limit for a task specific bar which in the case of most flood or fire response I guess would take two-three deployments to achieve...a measure that would be possible over a CAF members career but not requiring decades of activity. Unlike some of the awards though I had only considered a single bar for the time spent on the task specific domestic op to avoid the issues how many weeks/months/years a person was involved. This is more along the lines of the World War Two "BOMBER COMMAND" clasp awarded based upon a single operational mission conducted....but no additional recognition if you did multiple tours.
Regardless when I look at ALERT (180 days) or RANGER (4 years serving alongside) it will be an award that will require a clear set of criteria and should have some clearly published lists of eligible Operations/years considered.
daftandbarmy
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About 40 of my troops deployed on the Kelowna fires in 2003. When they returned I asked them how it went.
To a man - and woman - they all said 'it was the best experience of my life'. That should be reward enough, IMHO.
If we turn it into a gong hunting expedition, counting down 'days to gong', you tarnish the reason why our soldiers derive personal satisfaction from serving their country IMHO.
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