Special Service Medal - Domestic Operations Bar

[Booter]

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.

Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive though.

 

[Furniture]

Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive though.

Indeed, it can be a rewarding experience and be recognized. If not, I had better turn in all my medals, because my career has on balance been quite rewarding.

 

[markppcli]

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.

While yes an act of service is thanks in and of itself; the reality is now we have soldiers that will deploy to fight fires 3 times in a year, after doing it the year before and the year before that. Thats a lot different than a one time positive experience.

 

[foresterab]

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.

100% understand what you're saying here. And in fact its for that reason I believe it's why folks with the provincial response agencies should not be included in the eligibility list as their job is primarily focused upon that domestic response. That also includes myself as ineligible.

From the outside looking at the CAF though I don't believe domestic response is the primary role of the CAF outside of maybe Arctic operations focused upon Canadian Sovereignty (a topic for another beer/coffee). I also know multiple ex-CAF members who joined up, did their service honorably, and didn't always deploy overseas depending on timing/unit rotations etc. But many of those same members also served on domestic operations within Canada. They didn't sign up for a "gong" but to serve the country, did so honorably, and now you'd never know it.

I believe Canada does not do a good job at two things 1) recognizing the commitment of a CAF to join and honorably serve and 2) recognize the important role the CAF plays in assisting with Domestic Operations. And frankly the more I dig into the different operations, and scale of operations completed in past years to more it exposes how much is done by the CAF that is not recognized. Overseas service awards and honors isn't always easy to unravel and while not perfect is at least updated and maintained to account for the ongoing operational tempo of the CAF...but for domestic OPS...crickets. And it bothers me that as a nation we are not recognizing that service which is why I've spent so much time digging into trying to learn more.

In my own perfect world - which the better half often reminds me is flawed - each CAF member would be recognized at for their service at the completion of their first enlistment/4 years/honorable release (to account for those members who medically release early). So to use the phrase from earlier in the thread it will - yes - become an "EBGO award". It is to this basic award I would look at adding additional recognition for a significant time in that CAF members time in uniform spent on Domestic OPs which is where the heart of this thread's discussion lies...what is the proper way to recognize that time.

Hope this helps clarify some of my thinking and why I'm spending so much time on this topic
foresterab