Sea Service Insignia

[Calvillo]

What is the average time in service from BMQ for a RegF Sailor in a hard sea trade to earn his/her gunmetal SSI?

 

[Furniture]

I doubt the "average" would be worth much, as there are too many variables to be useful. To get 180 days at sea, you likely need to be posted to a ship that is doing routine sailing for a couple of years, or get posted to a ship doing an OP Horizon and get it in under a year.

When I went to the coast I ended up deployed for 8.5 months as soon as I arrived, so I had my 180 in no time. Back then, it was 365 for the gunmetal, so I still waited a couple of years.

 

[NavyHopeful]

If you get posted to a very, VERY busy ship, you could get it in a couple of years. From everything I've been hearing, in order to sustain the fleet and promote more force-generation in our sailors, the model of the 5-7 month deployments will be moved to 2-3 month mini-deployments.

Realistically, it took me about 3 years after my trades training, 1 Op CARIBBE (2 months), a 4-week work ups program, and a 7-month deployment on Op REASSURANCE in order to get my days, so it can be done, but it really depends on what trade you get and how much sailing you do.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

The Canadian fleet is not that big: It used to be that we knew who the sailors that sailed a lot and those who didn't were, without any need for bling. Don't go chasing bling just to get bling. Concentrate on learning your trade and carrying out your tasks properly at sea, The bling will follow in due course.

 

[Stoker]

What is the average time in service from BMQ for a RegF Sailor in a hard sea trade to earn his/her gunmetal SSI?

Get as much sea time as you can if the opportunity presents itself. You get paid more for being at sea either through sea pay or deployment pay. The medals, badges etc is just icing on the cake. You'll have plenty of time dependent on your trade to be ashore.