Kandahar-based Tim Hortons employees now eligible for medals, worship
Tim Hortons employees working at the Kandahar Airfield won’t need to roll up the rim to win anything; they’ll just need to keep serving coffee, which is now, apparently, a medal-worthy endeavour. A recent revamp to the process by which the Canadian Forces acknowledges overseas service means that the General Service Medal, which was previously awarded to military personnel, will soon be up for grabs by civilians—including Tim Hortons employees.
During the Second World War, medals were awarded to civilians working for the Salvation Army, YMCA and other organizations, but critics say expanding medal eligibility to commercial operations is a different story. One war veteran advocate told the Post that the new changes will only attract attention seekers: “You’re going to get a lot of rear-echelon people who just go over to hunt for medals, do their 30 days in someplace safe and say, ‘Look, I did my time in Afghanistan, I’m a hero, worship me.’”
Potential megalomaniacs should probably start getting their double-double sagas together early to ensure their worship priority.
• Tim Hortons staff eligible for Afghan war medals [National Post]
Think before sneering. Civilians in Kandahar don’t receive the same medal as soldiers who serve in Afghanistan — and before you brush off the risks of serving in Kandahar, you ought to read Brian Stewart’s report on CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/03/17/f-vp-stewart.html
If you took the trouble to report from Afghanistan yourself, you and, more importantly, your readers, would have a better understanding the risks these brave Canadians face in order to keep up the morale of Canadian and allied troops.
Does this mean their kids will get a free university education too if they happen to die while serving up a double double?
Having been there, while working at Tim’s, I think that I can say for all of us, what an honour it was to be standing up with the troops and recieving a medal. I do not show it off, and say “look at me, I’m a hero”, nor would any of the people that I worked with. Anyone going over there for attention seeking will be weeded out by the 2 week training session, which is used to gauge the caliber of the prospective employees. It was the most rewarding time of my life.