HMCS Toronto receives U.S. Navy Award

The United States Navy awards Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) TORONTO the Meritorious Unit Commendation for their efforts resulting in seizures of significant caches of illicit narcotics.

Crewmembers from HMCS Toronto stood on parade Feb. 20 at HMCS Scotian to receive a rare commendation from the U.S. Navy – the Meritorious Unit Commendation.

U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert presented the commendation and praised the personnel of Toronto for meritorious service and continued support of Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) from February 2013 to 2014.

“In the history of the commendation, we’ve given it to five units, which includes only two ships, this is the second. This event is very special in that it marks the fifth occurrence of such a decoration in the last 45 years,” said Admiral Greenert.

While deployed, The Halifax-class frigate significantly disrupted the flow of drugs, criminal and terrorist activities in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

Toronto’s responsibilities included tracking, boarding and searching maritime contacts of interest to CTF-150 resulting in an impressive string of narcotics seizures, including more than 1,300 kilograms of heroin and over 6,000 kilograms of hashish.

By disrupting the flow of narcotics to such a significant extent, Toronto severely impacted the funding of terrorist and criminal activities.

“An honour such as this continues to demonstrate the world-class capabilities of the Royal Canadian Navy’s ships and their crews,” said Vice Admiral Mark Norman, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy.

“I would like to thank Admiral Greenert for bestowing this honour on HMCS Toronto and her crew, and I congratulate the officers and sailors receiving this commendation today for modelling what duty and dedication entails, and for upholding the Royal Canadian Navy’s tremendous reputation for excellence at sea.”

Among the attended at HMCS Scotian were the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman, and several members of the U.S. and Canadian government and navy leadership.

Louise Matheson
MARLANT PA