Crown Princess Mary and the Danish Home Guard

[gerry]

Originally Posted by Muhler

Mary in uniform has caused some attention in Australia it seems: Princess Mary of Denmark Sports a Sword-Wielding Style We've Never Seen Kate Middleton Wear

Which is fine and good PR, as Australia has a long and very well established tradition for volunteer service. The firefighters springs to mind.

The only detraction, which is no fault of Mary, is the inability or perhaps rather unwillingness of some, to understand the concept of Mary wearing orders that are not military.

Although I too am curious about the sword; I have never seen a military women's uniform including this most masculine of weapons! Do please explain Muhler

[Muhler]

Originally Posted by gerry

Although I too am curious about the sword; I have never seen a military women's uniform including this most masculine of weapons! Do please explain Muhler

Very simple. Mary is an officer and the sabre is a part of the full dress uniform. (Even if the Home Guard no longer has a dress uniform. That saves money).
One of the first times a newly fledged first lieutenant wear a sabre is when they go to an audience with the Majesty shortly after graduating from the academy.

I'm not sure about second lieutenants and lieutenants in the Home Guard, because they usually only attend an officers course and not the academy. But I imagine they only borrow a sabre, because from the rank of captain and up all officers in the Home Guard are regulars.
But Mary as a royal is a special case, so she got a sabre when she became a lieutenant. I can imagine it is Frederik's old sabre, because IIRC Queen Ingrid gave Frederik the sabre of Frederik IX when Frederik had been in the military for a few years.

Basically Mary now has the highest rank an ordinary member of Home Guard can have. The next step is captain and as said before that's for academy graduates only. And after that comes major and that requires a staff course at the academy.
But there are advantages in being a royal and perhaps Mary will be promoted even higher. But it can only be a la suite, i.e. honorary. - However Mary is already an officer a la suite, because as far as I know she's never commanded anyone.
Had Mary been an ordinary home guardsman, with no military background, she would first have served for quite a bit as a private attending as many qualification courses as possible, before going for the NCO course, where she would first be squad leader, then after a while become platoon leader and only then would she apply for the officers course. Completing that course she would graduate as second lieutenant or lieutenant (not sure how it works nowadays) and then she would be the second in command of a company, answering to the captain who is the company commander and a regular. And that's it. The end of the line career wise.

There is an interesting difference between the Home Guard and regulars. The Home Guard is basically a militia, so they follow the person rather than the rank.
That was illustrated by an example from when I was in the Army Home Guard back around 1990. Another company in the district had leadership problems with a couple of new NCO's. One had been an NCO in the Royal Lifeguard and the other had been in the special forces. As such they were way more qualified than the senior sergeant who was in charge, and didn't fail to point that out! But while these two were very qualified and probably right in regards to training and methods, the other members of the platoon didn't like them. They knew their platoon leader, they trusted him and they knew he would look out for them. So when he had enough and quit in disgust, most of the platoon transferred to other companies, including ours.
The Home Guard has changed now. There is much more a demand for active service to remain a member today and you can't get away with just a couple of weeks service a year now. But the concept of following the person rather than the rank still applies.
In my time we also kept our weapon and ammunition at home. In my case my rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition. That is also no longer the case.

[Rudolph]

'If that was a politician she'd be run out of town!' Tensions run high on Today as Karl blasts Lisa's 'double standards' over gun laws after she praises 'Power Princess' Mary firing a rifle

Princess Mary sparks debate as Karl Stefanovic calls out anti-gun campaigner Lisa Wilkinson | Daily Mail Online

[Muhler]

Yeah.
I sincerely hope you in Canada have brighter TV-hosts than those in DK and Australia!
If not you can have some of ours - for free.
And if they don't live up to expectations, just discard them.

[polyesco]

A very nice gallery of Mary at the Home guard exercises
Mary de Danemark : La princesse remet son uniforme pour les grandes manoeuvres

nice picture
http://static1.purepeople.com/articl...ip-950x0-2.jpg

in this photo, there is no doubt Josephine is her daughter
http://static1.purepeople.com/articl...ip-950x0-2.jpg

[Muhler]

Summary of article in Billed Bladet #23, 2016.
Written by Trine Larsen.

As you know Mary took part in the largest annual Home Guard exercise near the fortress and garrison town of Fredericia last weekend.
Along with 5.455 Home Guardmen and some 600 from other countries.
There are now some 45.000 members of the Home Guard now that the inactive have been weeded out, so that's more than 10 % of all members. Around 15 % are women, who since the old M75 = G3 = 7.62 rifle was replaced by lighter the M95 = C5 = 5.56 are now taking part in all functions within the Home Guard. Previously it was only in support functions, so that has meant a dramatic increase of female members.

Most of the activities would have taken place at night, which at this time of the year is really only about 3½-4 hours. Fortunately the weather was fantastic.

This time the public part of Mary's involvement concentrated on the Navy Home Guard, who apart from manning ships for patrolling, rescue, inspection and so on are also in charge of guarding harbor installations and Mary was demonstrated how, standing next to a 12.7/.50 gunner who had taken up position to cover the harbor.
Later Mary was sailed out to Navy Home Guard vessel (they are never called ships in the Home Guard), where she got a demonstration in how to contain an oil-spill. - It is unfortunately far from uncommon that ships clean out their tanks, while sailing through Danish waters, so the Home Guard has plenty to do!
Among other things she was doing that Saturday was seeing how an underwater drone works, going to the shooting range and being shown the controls of a locomotive.

Sunday the exercise ended with a big parade with 4.600 of those who had taken part. (Many would have left for home or been busy clearing up).
They waited for 1½ for QMII to arrive and the mood was light hearted, with onlookers who Mary went over to and general merriment.
Then at 11.00 QMII arrived and walked the line of 303 meter. Mary stood to attention as the rest of the guardsmen, but got an extra smile from mother-in-law.
Then QMII gave a speech praising the Home Guard before going to a reception and then back to Dannebrog with Mary.
Here they had lunch before hosting a reception for the commanding officers in the afternoon.
In the late afternoon QMII went to Jelling where she walked around with the tourist more or less unnoticed for 1½ hour.

- The Jelling Stone that were erected in the 900's by the second official king of Denmark Harald Bluetooth and they are considered the official birth certificate of Denmark, because it's the first time Denmark is mentioned in an official text.
The text on the stones says the Harald Bluetooth erected these stone in honor of his father, Gorm the Old and his mother Queen Thyra and that he BTW christened the Danes. Gorm the Old is QMII's direct ancestor through the many branches of her family tree.
I guess it would have been next to impossible to keep an archeology and history buff like QMII away from the newly renovated museum at Jelling!

[polyesco]

thank you Muhler. Especially for the last history part. how fascinating that this exists! now you have me googling it.

Mary did look at ease with everyone, Im sure she had a great time, maybe a little tired.

[TortillaChips]

Thanks for the extra information Muhler fills thing out a lot more for me than just the few photos that I have seen

[Muhler]

You are both welcome.

Yes, no doubt a bit tired. She may not have been running around with a rifle, but knowing her, I'm sure she would have taken in as much as possible. And that's tiring as well.

[Muhler]

The new issue of the Home Guard Magazine is out, with an appendix about the excersize Mary took part in. As a pdf file.
Nothing new, and I believe we have seen most pics before.
HJV magasiner

[iceflower]

.

Crown Princess Mary visited the Home Guard Command in Vordingborg this morning, April 20:


** Pic 1 ** Pic 2 **


** folketidende.dk article & gallery: Kronprinsesse på kold krigs-visit ** translation **

[Roskilde]

What some lovely pictures of Mary today visiting the Home Guard Thanks Iceflower.
Her smiles tells how sure she always likes to visit them. And Mary rocks that uniform!
It's a busy day for Mary - right now she is visiting a hospice...

More pictures:

Gallery from sn.dk:
sn.dk

Galleri from kendte.dk:
Kronprinsesse Mary besøgte Hjemmeværnskommandoen

**

And a video from BB:

VIDEO: Kronprinsesse Mary tilbage i trøjen med soldaterkammeraterne | BILLED-BLADET

**

Like everybody elske in the Danish Home Guard the Crown Princess must delivers 24 hours volunteer work during a year. It's among other things some of the work she's going to do today.
Mary had 5 hours before she had to go to her next official event today..

Live-feed video from TV2 (24 minutes long)
https://www.facebook.com/tveast/?fref=ts


**

Very nice picture of beautiful Mary in her uniform!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTHEoqOB...=hjemmevaernet

Great pictures by the DRF's Facebook - beautiful woman.

https://www.facebook.com/detdanskeko...69362333402353

"Like everybody elske in the Danish Home Guard the Crown Princess must delivers 24 hours volunteer work during a year. It's among other things some of the work she's going to do today."
Mary had 5 hours before she had to go to her next official event today.

[Muhler]

And from the Home Guard web page: H.K.H. Kronprinsesse Mary besøgte Hjemmeværnet på Sydsjælland

I may return with some comments later.

[polyesco]

Great work by Mary she looks fantastic. So glad she joined the Home Guard, great example.

[Muhler]

Daily Mail on Mary and the Home Guard. Crown Princess Mary goes incognito in an all camouflage | Daily Mail Online

[Muhler]

Had a look at the DRF calendar. Looks like Mary is close to being promoted to captain in the Home Guard.

She is attending a course next week in order to prepare her her skills for a promotion to captain.

Interesting! You normally have to be a career officer in order to be a captain (company commander) in the Home Guard. And a basic requirement is to have graduated from the officers academy. - Mary hasn't.
But of course as Crown Princess, Mary is special and as far as I know she has rarely if ever played an active role on a platoon or company level in the company she formally belongs to. She is de facto lieutenant a la suite in the Home Guard. I.e. without a command. So I guess an exception is made for her.

I wonder if she will climb further up the career ladder in the Home Guard? Still without having a formal command of course. (She would hardly be qualified for that in real life.)
The next step after captain would be major, but the requires a basic staff officers training.
I guess she can get a crash course in that as well - she could ask her brother-in-law to prepare her.

PH, in his capacity as Prince Consort (and in Danish context that meant he held the same rank as QMII, except in regards to Constitutional issues) was made a full general and admiral - and he didn't have a formal officers education behind him either, even though he was a trained soldier who had seen active duty in Algeria. So why not Mary?
The reason was of course the traditional close affiliation between the DRF and the military, almost dictating that PH had to if not have a military role, then at least wear uniforms. Beforehand that was no problem, because since PH was the first Prince Consort in Danish history, the queen consorts before him just maintained a civilian role.
But today things are more blurred. Women can and do, and are indeed encouraged to, join the armed forces. So it's only natural that female members of the DRF play some sort of role within the Total Defense as well.
With Mary of course being the highest ranking (in the future) she will have to play a role that in some way is equivalent to the role PH played.

The commander of the Home Guard holds the rank of major general, if Mary is made full general a la suite in the Home Guard upon becoming queen, she would formally outrank the commander, and protocol wise that will simplify things.
She would of course outrank everyone except her husband anyway simply by being the queen, but it does make things more simple if she also outranks everybody else when in uniform. - It does look un-militarily sloppy if generals salute a captain first. And we can't have that!

So to sum up: I predict Mary will be doing some serious career leaps in the years to come!

ADDED:

I had a closer look at the course Mary is going through.
It's a basic course enabling the student to take over as company commander. (The second in command of a Home Guard company is a lieutenant, who is a civilian guardsman. However, should the captain be incapacitated, the lieutenant must and should be able to take over in all functions at a moments notice. But it is an advantage if the lieutenant can run the company in peacetime as well, in case there are problems finding a career officer of the officer is away for an extended period - hence this course.) As such the course is very much about administration, planning and dealing with personnel on a more personal level.
The course consists of the three modules. The first is for twelve hours.
The second is for 53 hours - a week basically.
And the third is for 24 hours - a full weekend.
- Mary has been out of sight for considerable periods here in January and February, so I wonder...

Mary is currently a first lieutenant, our Marie, as member of the Civil Defense, holds a rank that is equivalent to first lieutenant.

[ricarda]

DRF Gallery:
Hjemmeværnets chefkursus på Vordingborg Kaserne | Kongehuset

[Muhler]

Thanks, Ricarda.

It can't have been that easy a course for Mary, even though she's unlikely to fail. Because the rest do after all have practical experience to build on.
But a broad basic leadership (really an HR course) is certainly something she (and everybody else) will find useful.
I don't think Mary had much leadership experience in her pre-royal work and as Crown Princess the relatively limited staff that is her responsibility (secretary, LiW, stylist, maid) is hardly that big a challenge - in a negative context that is.
At this course she would have learned the basics about "subordinates with issues."

[Roskilde]

Originally Posted by ricarda

DRF Gallery:
Hjemmeværnets chefkursus på Vordingborg Kaserne | Kongehuset

Great pictures Thanks Ricarda.
It suits Mary with reading glasses.

I can see that Caroline Heering (close friend of Mary, and her former lady-in-waiting) is also on the team. Caroline and Mary started their education in the Home Guard together in 2008 and have followed each other in the education programme since.

Although we don't see Caroline as much in the official picture as when she was Mary's lady-in-waiting* she and Mary are still very close. It is my impression that Caroline Heering, together with Birgitte Handwerk and Marie Louise Skeel, are Crown Princess Mary's closest friends in Denmark - and have been from Mary's very first time in Denmark. Caroline, Birgitte and Marie Louise's husbands have been Crown Prince Frederik's close friends for many years.

It's always these couples (and their children) the Crown Prince family spend private holidays and private life with. It was for example Caroline and Peter Heering (and their children) the Crown Prince family traveled with on a 3 weeks private vacation along the west coast of the United States last early summer (Frederiks 50th birthday gift, I think)

https://scontent-arn2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...1a&oe=5D273A79

*We still do see Caroline officially as she has worked for many years in the Mary Foundation and still does.

[Tarlita]

And she manages to look good in fatigues. She makes a great poster girl for new recruits.
You can see Mary takes it all very seriously.