Talk:Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal

Untitled

Am overhauling article. Cut 'n' paste from [1]. -- saberwyn 06:29, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Edits on 13 April 2007

Amended some information about eligibility of defence personnel, and nature of changes in 2005. Here's a detailed explanation.

Original Letters Patent issued by the Queen in 1999 established the award, and provide that operations (or 'clasps') can be established by declaration approved by the Governor-General. The eligibility criteria for each clasp are set out in these declarations. In 2005 additional Letters Patent were issued by the Queen which set out the eligibility criteria for the Indian Ocean clasp, and provide for further clasps to be estabished for natural disaster operations. The eligible organisations for the Indian Ocean clasp are as determined (by written instrument) by the Governor-General. The 1999 Letters Patent still stand in parallel with the 2005 Letters Patent. There have so far been no further clasps declared under the 2005 Letters Patent.

On defence personnel generally, there has never been a prohibition on the Australian Defence Force being an eligible organisation for the medal. As stated in my edit, it just happened there was either already an ASM for the military operation alongside a declared HOSM operation, or the ADF was not deployed in the same place as a declared HOSM operation. Also as stated, defence personnel on leave from their service could qualify (and have done so) for the HOSM if serving a declared eligible organisation. The Indian Ocean clasp is the first time ADF has been a declared eligible organisation, but it is not true that this was made possible by changes to eligibility criteria.

Guran70 05:43, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Agree with Guran70. Australian Defence Force operations fall into three categories:

Classification	Hostiles	Use of Force	Casualties	Medal
Warlike	Actively hostile	Authorised	Expected	AASM or OSM
Non-warlike	Potentially hostile	Self defence	Not expected	ASM or OSM
Peacetime	Not present Environmental hazards possible	Unarmed	Not expected	HOSM or none

It is Australian Defence Force policy that only one service medal will be awarded for any one operation (although members may also be eligible for a campaign medal, foreign service medal, or both). That meant, for non-warlike operations (in which civilian organisations performing humanitarian relief would receive the HOSM) the ASM took precedence. Operation Sumatra Assist (Boxing Day 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster) was the first time after the introduction of the HOSM that an overseas ADF operation was essentially peacetime in nature and therefore not eligible for the ASM (and therefore the decision was made to award the HOSM for that operation). Kangaresearch (talk) 12:55, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Edit on 2 May 2007

"Notable recipients" referred to "all military personnel involved in Ops Sumatra Assist I and II". This is not correct. The Area of Operations for Operations Sumatra Assist I and II are established and defined separately to the "affected area" declared for eligibility for the "Indian Ocean" clasp for the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal. The affected area for the medal is restricted to those disaster zones where immediate humanitarian relief was delivered, while the Area of Operations for Ops Sumatra Assist I and II included other areas, e.g. Royal Malaysian Air Force Base Butterworth, where many supplies were received and distributed by ADF personnel. Hence many ADF personnel who were "force assigned" to Ops Sumatra Assist I and II do not meet the criteria for the medal and are not eligible.

Guran70 02:48, 2 May 2007 (UTC)