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THE COMBAT ACTION BADGE: HOW NOT TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE TROOPS

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As you likely know now the Canadian Forces has decided against issuing a Combat Action Badge that was promised to the troops by then CDS Gen. Rick Hillier.

To read my article on that decision go here:

http://davidpugliesemilitaryphotos.blogspot.com/2009/05/combat-action-badge-will-not-be-issued.html

Equally interesting is how the decision on the CAB issue was communicated ….or actually not communicated over the last six months.

I didn’t realize it until a few days ago but my recent innocent (to me any way) query on the CAB touched off a mini-crisis at NDHQ.

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Over the last year I had been asked by some Afghan veterans to check and see what was happening with the Combat Action Badge so I have done that on and off since April 2008. Hillier told Defence Watch in April 2008 that the badge had been designed and it would be awarded by the end of 2008. In a November 2008 interview with Defence Watch (published in a December DW blog) the new CDS Gen. Walter Natynczyk indicated that the CF was on the verge of changing its mind on the CAB but was still mulling over the concept and that no final decision had yet been made.

Fast forward to April 2009. At the end of that month I put a query into DND for yet another update on what was happening with CAB. Was it dead or would it be awarded?

Then I waited….

Unknown to me, inside NDHQ my query had more than panicked a few people in the Public Affairs branch.

The decision not to award CAB had been made in the fall of 2008….but no one had officially told the troops. The leadership of some individual units had informed their staff but no military-wide CANFORGEN had been issued (that probably explains why I was getting a couple of emails a month from military personnel asking me what was happening with CAB).

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DND Public Affairs decided to stall answering my query while a CANFORGEN was written and approved…..but it took more than two weeks to do that? (My query apparently started off the process of writing the CANFORGEN).

Then on the morning of Thursday May 14 –with the CANFORGEN still not ready for release–someone at the Army.ca website (a private website, not affiliated with DND) posted a portion of NDHQ’s media strategy regarding CAB. That strategy read:

“For awareness, David Pugliese is following up on previous interview in which the creation of the Combat Action Badge was discussed where CDS said we are “moving away from it”. AFC decision was made in Fall 08 to not pursue such a recognition and that will be communicated to reporter today. From research on this matter, it appears that the decision not to pursue the badge may not be common knowledge and that soldiers (potentially “expecting” this badge) will hear of this Fall 2008 decision in the paper. Internal communication recommended.”

Someone sent me the Army.ca link and I asked Public Affairs what was up. Public Affairs officers were furious that their strategy was on the internet and twenty minutes later the Army.ca page in question mysteriously disappeared.

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A DND Public Affairs then said she would get back to me the next day with their answer, on Friday (May 15). Mind you I already knew what the answer was since their own strategy had been leaked.

Behind the scenes they were struggling to get the CANFORGEN written and out to CF personnel before the Citizen published my story. NDHQ was under the impression the article was running that Friday.

What they didn’t know was that for the Citizen, it wasn’t a race. The story would be published when the newspaper had room, which was on Sunday. When I did tell Public Affairs that the article wasn’t running on the Friday I could hear an audible sigh of relief on the phone from the DND PR person.

Friday afternoon May 15 the CANFOGEN went out.

It read:

COMBAT ACTION BADGE
UNCLASSIFIED
1.??? FOLLOWING CONSULTATION WITH SAILORS, SOLDIERS, AIRMEN AND AIRWOMEN, ARMED FORCES COUNCIL HAS DECIDED NOT TO PROCEED WITH THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMBAT ACTION BADGE
2.??? SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS TO RECOGNIZE MILITARY PERSONNEL FOR THEIR DEVOTION TO DUTY, COURAGE AND LEADERSHIP IN THE MILITARY PROFESSION. ACCORDINGLY IT HAS BEEN DECIDED NOT TO PURSUE THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSIGNIA SIGNIFYING COMBAT INVOLVEMENT

SIGNED BY W. NATYNCZYK, CDS

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