Thank you, Iceflower
That's interesting and positive news.
I somehow had a feeling la Marie would join the Total Defence in some way.
So she has joined what was previously better known as the Civil Defence.
That's in line with Mary joing the Home Guard, which is also a part of the Total Defence and Joachim and Frederik who both hold military ranks. (The military also being a part of the Total Defence). Joachim in the reserves, Frederik as a future commander in chief.
I'll deal more with this later, gotta pick up our youngest first.
___________________
Princess Marie has recently taken part in a training for emergency services
which included first aid, fire fighting and rescue in Tinglev.
**
Prinsessen uddanner sig: Marie vil redde liv **
translation **
**
jv.dk: Royal uddannelse i Tinglev: Prinsesse Marie yder førstehjælp **
Translation of article on the webpage of Beredskabsstyrelsen = Civil Defence. (*)
Beredskabsstyrelsen - Prinsesse Marie frivillig i redningsberedskabet (There are pics, click 'em).
Prinsesse Marie volunteer in the Civil Defence.
Her Royal Highness Princess Marie are currently going through a series of courses in the Civil Defence, which among other things encompass First aide, fire fighting and rescue.
Her Royal Highness Princess Marie is currently going through an introduction training in the Civil Defence at it's school in Tinglev.
Princess Marie has expressed interest in the tasks of the Civil Defence in preventing, limiting and dealing with damage and accidents involving persons, property and the environment in connection with accidents or disasters. Based on that the Princess has accepted the offer from the Civil Defence of taking part in an introduction training (**) with employees from the Civil Defence.
On completion of her training, Princess Marie will be attached to the Volunteer Deployment Force (DFI) under Civil Defence Central Jutland in Herning. (***)
"It's a great delight for the Civil Defence that Princess Marie wish to be attached as a volunteer as a part of the emergency readiness", says vice manager in the Civil Defence Fleming Klokager.
"Princess Marie's dedication will be a part of creating positive attention about the Civil Defence and the important job of securing the robustness of the Danish society, which the Civil Defence - and not least the volunteers - contribute to", says the vice manager.
Facts about the training.
The training encompass among other things traditional Civil Defence disciplines as administering first aide, putting out fires, rescuing injured persons and persons who are trapped and communication and staff work.
(*) To keep things simple I'll translate the name Beredskabsstyrelsen with Civil Defence, which was it's old name.
(**) Basic traning which all new "recruits" in the Civil Defence go through.
(***) What beforehand used to be called a "column". A column was and is equivalent to a company, or in this case a brigade, in the armed forces.
I think that's very commendable by our Marie.
Now, The Civil Defence belongs to the Ministry of Interior and is a part of the Danish Total Defence.
The personel in the Civil Defence consists of conscripts, volunteers and employees.
Equipped with heavy specialist machinery, especially pumps, the Civil Defence is called out in case of floods, heavy rainfall, search for missing persons, disasters, ecological accidents like oilspils, major accidents, brush and forest fires, terrorist attacks and war.
Eventhough they are uniformed, they are considered a civillian organisation. (During the cold war they were supposed to be issued batons, to defend themselves and to keep some order).
The Civil Defence are fairly often called out, not least after the heavy rainfalls in recent years, but volunteers on a basic level, like la Marie are not called upon very often.
Marie will in my opinion mainly be a patron/figure head/living recruitment poster for the Civil Defence.
The Total Defence consists of the police, firebrigades under provincial district control, the Civil Defence, hospitals, the regular armed forces i.e. army, navy and airforce and the Home Guard.
These different services work together depending on what kind of emergency there is.
The police belongs to the Ministry of Justice and they have their usual day to day jobs, often reinforced by the Police Home Guard, who act as a kind of deputies in various situations. Including royal visits during the summer cruises with Dannebrog.
The Home Guard belongs to the Ministry of Defence like the regulars. It used to be a territorial defence, lightly armed and supposed to observe and harrass an invading force locally.
The Home Guard has now developed into a kind of territorial army or national guard, which is now also deployed abroad in direct support of the regular army.
The Home Guard now consists of a little less than 1% of the population, or the equivalent of 200.000 Australians, 3.000.000 Americans or 550.000 Britons. During the cold war that number was higher.
I don't how many are members of the Civil Defence, but I'll estimate the number to be around 25.000, including concripts.
The Civil Defence and the Home Guard, which Mary belongs to, have taken over a number of roles from the military here at home in DK, simply because you are hard pressed in even finding a soldier at home in DK these years! (I'm only half joking). Beforehand there were barracks all over the country, and when needed you could quickly mobillize a lot of hands and showels. No longer.
The military is roughly speaking divided into: those serving abroad, those who have recently served abroad, those who are preparing to serve abroad, specialists and concripts (who are practically all volunteers and whom the military aim to recruit for service as professionals and thus serving abroad).
