Australian Operational Service Medal

Australian Operational Service Medal
Australian Operational Service Medal with: "Border Protection" ribbon (top) and "Greater Middle East Operation" ribbon
Awarded by Australia
Type	Campaign medal
Eligibility	Military - Willingly and ably perform their work as part of an operation or within other specific hazardous environments and conditions. Civilian - Defence civilians, and other classes of civilian who are employed on ADF operations under the provisions of the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982.
Awarded for	Service on declared hazardous operations
Status	Currently issued
Clasps	"accumulated service device" for military awards Clasps for operations for civilian awards
Statistics
Established	22 May 2012
First awarded	12 December 2012
Order of Wear
Next (higher)	Australian Service Medal
Next (lower)	Rhodesia Medal
Reverse

The Australian Operational Service Medal is a campaign medal established on 22 May 2012 to recognise service by Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel on designated hazardous operations. It may also be awarded to civilians who serve alongside the ADF on designated operations under specific conditions.

It replaces the Australian Active Service Medal and Australian Service Medal for future ADF operations. The medal is issued to military personnel with a different ribbon for each designated operation. When issued to civilians, a standard ribbon is issued with clasps issued for each designated operation.

The Australian Operational Service Medal is a campaign medal established by Royal Letters Patent on 22 May 2012. The medal is intended to supersede future awards of the Australian Active Service Medal and Australian Service Medal for future Defence operations. It will be (is) awarded in an Australian Defence Force and civilian variant.

The ADF version of the medal will be (has) a standard medal design, but the ribbons (will) vary by operation. 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.

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

Civilians who serve alongside the ADF and are subject to the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 may be awarded a civilian variant of the medal. The civilian version will use (uses) the same medal design as the ADF version, but will be (is) awarded with a standard civilian ribbon and a clasp denoting the declared operation. Subsequent qualifying service for civilians will be (is) denoted by clasps.

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.