There is more than the Canadian Solution for organizing defence.
Denmark is a country of less than 6 million people with an area a bit smaller than Nova Scotia.
Canada is a country of 38,000,000.
We have 7 times the population and 232 times the area.
In World War 2 it was overrun by Germany when the Danish government told the Danish Army to not resist and lay down their arms.
This didn't sit well with many Danes who organized their own resistance who fought the Germans for the next 5 years.
After the war the government reinstated the army.
But the resistance movement wanted to ensured that the defence of the nation was in the hands of the people so they organized the Home Guard.
The Army is the Government's Army.
The Home Guard is, effectively Parliament's Army.
The Government's Army
The Government's Army is paid and its ranks filled by volunteers and conscripts.
Every 18 year old is registered for conscription but most are never called up.
Most positions are filled by volunteers from the list.
Conscripts do 4 months training and can then be released or can volunteer for additional service with the Danish equivalent of the Ceremonial Guards and other duties. They can also sign on for full time contracts and volunteer for overseas service.
This system sustains a paid
Government Army with a High Command and a 2 Brigade Divisional Force with 25,400 active members.
Multiply by 7 and
the Canadian equivalent would be 7 Divisions, 14 Brigades and 177,800 active members.
Technically all Danish 18-year-old males are conscripts (37,897 in 2010, of whom 53% were considered suitable for duty).
[36] Due to the large number of volunteers, 96-99% of the number required in the past three years,
[37] the number of men actually called up is relatively low (4200 in 2012). There were additionally 567 female volunteers in 2010, who pass training on "conscript-like" conditions.
[38]
The active army is backed by a Reserve force of ex-members
WHAT IS THE RESERVE
The reserve is the group of military personnel who are not permanently employed in the Armed Forces, but have signed a contract with the Armed Forces to be available for military service. (Similarly, the Danish Emergency Management Agency has a reserve of non-permanent contractual personnel who are also organized in the HPRD).
The reserve consists of soldiers of all ranks from the constable and sergeant group and officers up to the rank of colonel. All have a full military education equivalent to that of permanent staff. Many reservists are former permanent line personnel who have left the Armed Forces and, like the other reservists, have a civilian job as their primary occupation.
WHY THE RESERVE?
Military defense uses reserve personnel for several reasons, the most important of which is probably that it is the cheapest way to use personnel. If a reservist is called up for service 35 days a year, he is free for the Armed Forces for the other 330 days of the year. For this reason, the Reserve is typically used for peak loads. For example, one in five international operations deployed in 2008 was by the Reserve. Secondly, the Reserve is a bridge-builder between civil society and the Armed Forces. It brings civilian values and ideas into the Armed Forces and is the Armed Forces' ambassadors in the civilian. Third, a large majority of the reservists possess attractive civilian competencies that the Armed Forces directly or indirectly benefit from. Fourth, having a Reserve Defense provides operational flexibility:
HOW BIG IS THE RESERVE IN DENMARK?
In 2013, about 3,000 reservists have an availability contract with the Armed Forces in 2013, and they deliver about 25,000 days of command, corresponding to approx. 120 man-years. In fact, most of the admission days are provided by less than 1,000 reservists. The Danish defense spends about 0.3% of the defense budget on the Reserve's available service, and is, like Estonia and Italy, among the NATO countries that use the Reserve the least. In contrast, the UK and US spend from 5 to 10 per cent of the defense budget on their reserves.
The Home Guard (Parliament's Army)
This is the direct equivalent of the Territorial Defence Forces of Ukraine and Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway. Finnland is organized differently. There everyone is in the army.
The Home Guard works and trains with the Army, Navy and Air Force, and is coordinated by the High Command but it is not part of them.
The Home Guard, under a Major General, has its own Command Structure, independent of the Government Army.
It has its own representative in parliament.
Aside from a small staff it is an unpaid volunteer organization.
Dual Leadership
The Home Guard has a dual military - civilian leadership:
The Commander of the Home Guard, Major General Jens Garly, is responsible for the training and deployment of units and also for the overall supervision of the Home Guard
The Commissioner of the Danish Home Guard, Søren Espersen, is responsible for recruitment and gaining support for the Home Guard in the Danish population.
It is built around local companies. The highest rank available to the unpaid volunteer in Captain.
Most volunteers are young civilians already started on their civvy career.
They attend the local sessions for interesting training and camaraderie as well as to "Be Prepared".
And they do it for free.
The Volunteers in the Danish Home Guard
The members of the Home Guard take part in the defence and support of the country on a voluntary and unpaid basis.
Men and women from the age of 18 can apply for membership. A military background is not necessary. The wish to participate is more important.
This site opens to a great presentation on the Homeguard, volunteering and training.
Hjemmeværnet
The Army Home Guard
The Army Home Guard volunteer soldiers are specially trained to support the Armed Forces, the Police and the Emergency Management Agency in their task solution on land, both in Denmark and abroad.
All members of the Army Home Guard have completed a basic military training in line with the Army's basic training. The tasks range from traffic regulation and security, to securing Danish socially important companies. The Army Home Guard also supports the Armed Forces in connection with the training of conscripts and soldiers who are to be sent out for international tasks.
In recent years, the Army Home Guard has been on international missions with the Armed Forces, for example in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
The Home Guard volunteers come from all parts of society - together they have an interest in defense and a desire to help society and make a difference.
Copenhagen attacks spur Home Guard interest
Interest in enrolling in the Danish Home Guard doubled in the week after a gunman opened fire at a cultural centre and killed a Jewish security guard, recruitment officials said on Friday.
Interest in the Home Guard increased after both the Paris and Copenhagen attacks.
The Home Guard normally receives an average of 27 recruitment inquiries per week, (189 Canadian or 9828 Canadian Equivalents per year)- but in the week after the February 14-15 Copenhagen shootings, 85 Danes signed up. In the first week following the Paris attacks, 40 Danes contacted the Home Guard. An additional 75 signed up the following week.
“I think it is natural that people react in different ways when they suddenly feel that their country and society is under attack. Some want to take concrete action and for them the Home Guard is a way to support the military and protect society,” Krenchel said.
The Home Guard recruitment process takes up to four months
One of the weapons that El-Hussein used was an M95 rifle that had previously been stolen from the home of a Danish Home Guard member. That led the military service to order its 4,300 (30,100 Canadian Equivalents with their rifles at home) volunteer members in March to turn in their rifle bolts, making them unable to be fired.
That decision led to a mixed political response. While Defence Minister Nicolai Wammen expressed his “full trust” in the Home Guard, many opposition MPs criticized the decision.
“When one hands in their bolt, it’s the same as handing in their weapon. So it is basically saying that now our Home Guard is unarmed. I think that is the wrong decision,” Danish People’s Party spokeswoman Marie Krarup told DR.
Troels Lund Poulsen, a spokesman for primary opposition party Venstre, told Berlingske it was “insane” to implement what he characterized as a drastic decision, while Holger Nielsen of the left-wing Socialist People’s Party countered that disarming Home Guard members was “sensible”.
The Home Guard also has its own Special Force, the Special Support and Reconnaissance Company (SSR)
The Home Guard's Special Support and Reconnaissance Company (SSR) is specially trained in obtaining information under difficult tactical conditions and supports the solution of the Armed Forces' national and international tasks.
As the Home Guard's national special force, SSR must be able to support the Armed Forces' special operations forces with patrols and staff - also internationally. This places great demands on the individual soldier.
The unit consists of volunteer personnel from the Home Guard who are specially selected, specially trained and specially equipped to be able to perform special reconnaissance and information retrieval in small highly trained teams.
Military service and civilian affairs
SSR gives you a unique opportunity to get the best out of the military world while you have a civilian job or are doing other things unrelated to the Armed Forces in general.
If you, like many others, still want to have the experiences that the military can give you in the form of exercises, courses and personal competencies, then SSR is a good place to be. You will be able to meet your physical and personal challenges while you can also have a civilian job.
Physical and mental challenges
Great demands are placed on your physical endurance and your mental resilience. You will be faced with physical challenges that require you to keep your shape straight.
You sometimes want to get to the limit of what you can physically handle, and you want to train for it. This option must also be rewarded, and you will therefore have the opportunity to train with others who also have this option.
This means that the physical requirements must be able to be met at all times and form a foundation for you to be able to complete the demanding exercises and courses in which SSR participates.
SSR in preparation for other military units
If you have the desire to become a Hunter (Jaeger-Commando) or a Frogman, SSR is a good place to start. The service provides a good physical, mental, personal and professional foundation. The training in SSR is demanding because we place high demands on you so that SSR can fulfill its obligations in the cooperation agreement with the Danish special operations forces.
Through the service in SSR, you get a professional and personal surplus, which can help you against the dream of being admitted to one of the two corps. SSR can give you the push to get off to a good start - you then have to complete the rest yourself.
Personal skills
An important part of the service in SSR is about not skipping where the fence is lowest.
You will be continually influenced to get things done in the best way. During the service, there will be situations where it can be directly life-threatening if things are not done properly or the individual wastes his or her professional competence. You will therefore be greeted with the attitude that you keep working until the task is solved extremely satisfactorily.
SSR thus expects one to behave properly and have situational awareness. On the other hand, one cannot have served in SSR without being influenced in a positive way.
Unique unity
When you have gone through a lot of hardships together and seen how dependent you are on each other, you get a unique friendship.
During exercises and courses, you will usually spend many hours with other people who share the same interests as you and who are willing to help you in all situations. This unity is difficult to find elsewhere and will be something that characterizes you during, but also after a completed service in SSR.
Something magical happens between people who are dependent on each other under extreme conditions. You will therefore find both support and camaraderie at SSR.
The SSR is not the entirety of the Home Guard but what it is pitching is likely what appeals to the rest of the volunteers.
It obviously isn't about the money. It isn't paid.
It is about service, challenge, friendship and interest and above all a feeling of wanting to contribute.
Tasmania’s very own royal, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark has enrolled in the Danish Home Guard.
The Crown Princess will learn how to handle and fire a weapon, first aid, marching drills, signal training, fire-fighting and rescue skills while she attends elementary training at the Home Guard training centre.
When she finishes her training, Princess Mary will be attached to the Home Guard ‘total defence’ region in Copenhagen.
Crown Princess Mary completes Home Guard Training
Continuing and completing her training with the Danish Home Guard between February 17 and 19, Crown Princess Mary has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Home Guard. She is now attached to the staff of Total Defence Region Copenhagen.
Mary began her basic Home Guard training in January 2008, and continued with NGO training that November. She undertook a further officiers course this year between January 19 and 21, plus on January 28.
Mary passed a course in shooting, first aid and surviving in the wild, meaning that she can now serve in Denmark's Home Guard.
By training with the organisation, which would defend the nation in the event of an attack, the princess is following in the footsteps of her mother-in-law Queen Margrethe. The Home Guard was formed in 1949, with its members drawn from World War II resistance fighters.
Facts about the Danish Home Guard
- The Home Guard is a volunteer military organisation.
- The Home Guard had 46,651 members as of October 2014 .
- The active force had 15,808 volunteer soldiers as of October, 2014. The remaining volunteers belong to the Home Guard Reserve.
- Approximately 15 percent of all volunteer soldiers are women.
- The task of the Home Guard is to support the Armed Forces – nationally as well as internationally. In addition, the Home Guard supports the police, the emergency services and other authorities in carrying out their duties.
- 1,845 people applied for enrollment in the Home Guard, and 1,301 volunteers signed a contract in 2014 (as of November 2014).
- 868 of the new volunteers (68 percent) were aged 18-32.
- The appropriation allocated to the Home Guard in the Finance Bill amounted to 498,4 m. DKK in 2014.
Facts about the Danish Canadian Home Guard
- The Home Guard is a volunteer military organisation.
- The Home Guard had
46,651 326,557 members as of October 2014 .
- The active force had 1
5,808 110,656 volunteer soldiers as of October, 2014. The remaining volunteers belong to the Home Guard Reserve
- (an armed active force of
4,300 30,100 volunteer soldiers keep their rifles at home)
- (a Special Support and Reconnaissance
Company Battalion is sustained)
- Approximately 15 percent of all volunteer soldiers are wome
- The task of the Home Guard is to support the Armed Forces – nationally as well as internationally. In addition, the Home Guard supports the police, the emergency services and other authorities in carrying out their duties.
1,845 12,915 people applied for enrollment in the Home Guard, and 1,301 9,107 volunteers signed a contract in 2014 (as of November 2014).868 6,076 of the new volunteers (68 percent) were aged 18-32.- The appropriation allocated to the Home Guard in the Finance Bill amounted to
498,4 m. DKK 655 MCAD in 2014.
In case some think that $655,000,000 per year is too much to sustain a pool of 326,557 military age volunteers with some training
- $217,912,613 – Cadets & Junior Rangers
- 9,668 Reserves Supporting Cadets
March 2020 - Essential information to familiarize the Minister with the Department.
www.canada.ca
- 54,325 Cadets (as of March 1, 2020)
- 4,271
youths Junior Rangers participating in over 135 patrols.
And if you think this unrealistic I remind you of
The
2010 stats show that 47% (or over
13 million) volunteer. In total 2 billion hours were volunteered, the equivalent of
1.1 million full time jobs. On average, volunteers contributed
156 hours each (roughly 21 working days).
NFPA estimates there were approximately 152,650 local firefighters in the Canada during the period 2014 to 2016. Of the total number of firefighters 26,000 (17%) were career firefighters and 126,650 (83%) were volunteer firefighters.
Volunteer firefighters freely volunteer their efforts as a way of serving and giving back to their community. They often do not receive monetary compensation from the fire department. If they are paid, it is typically in the form of small stipends or annual bonuses.
The right bait?
