Australian Operational Service Medal

The Australian Operational Service Medal is a campaign medal established by Royal Letters Patent on 22 May 2012.^[6] This campaign medal was instituted as a replacement for future issues of the Australian Active Service Medal and Australian Service Medal and operational campaign medals for the Australian Defence Force, as well as to recognise the service of Defence civilians in declared operational areas.^[7] It is awarded as either a military or civilian variant.^[8]

The military version of the medal has a standard medal design, but ribbons vary by operation.^[3] An accumulated service device will be awarded for subsequent qualifying service by ADF members where they undertake further service on an operation for which they have already been awarded the Australian Operational Service Medal.^[3]

To date, four ribbons for ADF service have been announced:

	The Border Protection ribbon has three equal stripes of dark blue, ochre and dark green which denote the seas and sky, the deserts, and the forests and grasslands.[9]
	The Greater Middle East Operation ribbon has three equal stripes of mid green, black and light blue, edged by two slim stripes of light sand. Sand represents the desert sands, green represents Australia and hope, black represents anti-piracy, and blue represents the maritime and air aspects.[10][11]
	The Special Operations ribbon is 32 mm wide in black with a central stripe of red. Additional accumulated service is denoted by an 8 mm high Arabic numeral with an antique silver finish.[12]
	The Counter Terrorism/Special Recovery ribbon is 32 mm with black edges, symbolising counter-terrorism operations fading to grey to symbolise the urban nature of operations. The blue stripes, which flank the central white stripe, represent the broader contribution of the Special Operation command staff. The white symbolises the peaceful outcome as a final action.[13]
	The Africa ribbon is 32 mm as a central red stripe, flanked by black stripes of equal width, bordered with golden yellow and White stripes of equal width and edged with mid-green stripes.[14]

The Australian Operational Service Medal (Civilian) was established to allow for recognition of Defence civilians, who had agreed to be subject to the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 and were employed overseas to support the operations of a deployed military force in a declared area of operations. The civilian version uses the same medal design as the military version, but is awarded with a unique civilian ribbon and a clasp denoting the declared operation.^[15] Subsequent qualifying service for civilians will be (is) denoted by clasps.^[15]

The Civilian ribbon is green with central stripes of gold and purple. The purple represents Defence, and the green and gold are Australia's national colours.

Clasps announced (and awarded) to date are listed below.

The variant for border protection operations was announced on 19 July 2012. This variant will be (is) awarded to Australian Defence Force personnel who have served on border protection operations since 1997. The ribbon for the medal is 32 mm wide with a central stripe of ochre flanked by one blue stripe and one green stripe of equal width.^[16]

The declared operations are:

Personnel who served on naval vessels, maritime patrol aircraft or Regional Force Surveillance Unit patrols whilst assigned to any of these operations may be eligible.^[21]

Members of the Australian Defence Force must have served either an aggregate of 30 days either deployed or force assigned as a member of one of the declared operations, or were deployed or force assigned to a declared operation and completed 30 sorties from a unit assigned to the operation, so long as the sorties were conducted over a period of not less than 30 aggregate days with no more than one sortie counted per day.^[16]

Members must also have been:^[16]

• Deployed at sea directly supporting a declared operation
• Deployed on land or in the air, dedicated in support of a declared operation
• Deployed forward to exclusively support a declared operation.

Members are not eligible for an award of the AOSM-BP where an entitlement exists to another Australian medal for the same deployment.

Members are not eligible for an award of the AOSM-BP where the member was part of:

• Headquarters staff at Joint Operations Command;
• Headquarters staff at Northern Command;
• Headquarters staff at Military Strategic Commitments;
• Headquarters staff at Regional Force Surveillance Unit;
• Australian Defence Force staff at Border Protection Command; or
• Base maintainers and support personnel
• Rifle Company Butterworth personnel providing direct support to Border Protection operations via airfield and aircraft security.

The eligibility requirements for this medal are:

• 30 days service, continuous or aggregated, on either of the below operations
• The ADF member is force assigned for operational duties.

The declared operations are:

The eligibility requirements for this medal are:

• 30 days service, continuous or aggregated, on either of the below operations
• The ADF member is force assigned for operational duties.

The declared operations are:

On 12 December 2012, the Governor-General declared, for the purposes of the Australian Operational Service Medal Regulation 2012, a number of declared operations, and determined the conditions for award of Clasps.^[4]

General conditions for all Clasps include

• awarded to a civilian who was employed for duty on the declared operation for a period of not less than an aggregate of 30 days;^[4]

Specific conditions for each Clasp include

• Australian Honours Order of Precedence
• Australian campaign medals
• Australia Service Medal 1939–45
• Australian Active Service Medal 1945–1975
• Australian Active Service Medal
• Australian Service Medal 1945–1975
• Australian Service Medal
• Police Overseas Service Medal (Australia)
• Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal
• National Emergency Medal (Australia)
• Civilian Service Medal 1939–1945
• List of military operations involving Australia

• Image of medals laid out prior to presentation, Royal Australian Navy Media Library.
• Australian Operational Service Medal, www.defence.gov.au
  • Australian Operational Service Medal – Border Protection, www.defence.gov.au
  • Australian Operational Service Medal – Civilian, www.defence.gov.au