Danish sailors who patrol the waters around Greenland are not granted veteran status, medals or invitations to Denmark’s national flag day, DR reports.
Deployed Danish soldiers are being honored with speeches and parades across the country on September 5. But the crews of the Navy’s 1st Squadron, 1. Eskadre, are absent, according to reporting by DR.
The squadron’s ships enforce the kingdom’s sovereignty in Greenlandic waters, carry out sea rescues and recover bodies from the cold sea. Marine specialist Emil Blom, who has served more than seven years, told DR that the crews are deployed just as long as others but earn nothing.
By comparison, soldiers posted to Camp Valdemar in Latvia receive a medal, an invitation to flag day and veteran status. Jesper Korsgaard Hansen, chairman of the Defense Ministry’s largest union, Centralforeningen for Stampersonel, said the difference cannot be explained or defended.
Sailing near Greenland is classified as a national operation, which excludes crews from a long list of benefits. Frigate crews on NATO missions and Navy personnel serving with the EU border agency Frontex do earn veteran status.
Access to psychological support
Joint shop steward Niels Pihlblad said the sense of missing recognition runs through the whole squadron. Staff have pushed for years for veteran status, which grants access to a psychologist scheme through Veterancenteret.
Pihlblad told DR that crews work in one of the most dangerous places in the world. After sea rescues, young crew members can be required to pull dead people from the water, which he described as potentially traumatic.
Blom said several of his colleagues have recovered bodies. He once spent up to 18 hours searching for a missing person without finding them. He also fainted twice on board, which he attributes to stress, and was sent ashore for more than half a year.
In May, DR reported on an internal survey describing physically and mentally strained crews in 1. Eskadre. It found that 60 percent of staff on the Arctic vessels were considering leaving the Navy within two years.
One of the main reasons cited was a feeling of missing recognition and unequal treatment compared with crews on Danish frigates. Korsgaard Hansen said the rules are politically decided and should be changed.
He noted that the current rules were written when Denmark sent soldiers to Afghanistan and Iraq. The tasks have changed since then, he said, though he acknowledged that veteran status and medals cannot be extended to everyone without diluting their meaning.
Pihlblad said medals are reportedly on the way, another point the squadron has fought for over many years. Defense Minister Jeppe Bruus of the Social Democrats expressed gratitude for the squadron’s work.
Bruus said he is open to examining both veteran status and the squadron’s participation in flag day. Work on the veteran field will continue, he told DR, adding that he hears what the sailors are saying.
