One thing I've been wondering, and someone might enlighten me, why wasn't it just the "purple trades" who were unified ? Would make sense to have a single "General Purpose" branch with various department (medical, policing, etc...) and it would have cut down some of the cost.
PS: migth have to design a uniform for a AH purple trades branch one day.
Technically, here are the so-called "purple trades" (as per modern trade classifications):
Logistics Branch - Logistics Officers (sea/land/air), Resource Management Support Clerks (the office clerks/finance clerks), Cooks (self-explanatory), Supply Technicians (the quartermaster teams), Stewards (the wardroom servers on ships and VIP flights), Mobile Equipment Support Operators (the truck drivers), Ammunition Technicians (the boys who play with things that go "bang!"), Postal Clerks (the mailmen), Traffic Technicians (the people movers).
Band Branch - Band Officers (sea/air/land), Musicians (the bandsmen).
Medical Branch/Canadian Forces Medical Services - Medical Officer (doctors), Nursing Officers (nurses), Bioscience Officer (the medical researchers), Health Care Administration Officer (the preventive medicine officers), Pharmacy Officer (the drug dispensers), Physiotherapy Officer (the "legal" chiropractors), Social Work Officer (the psychological support officers), Biomedical Electronics Technician (the medical equipment repairmen), Medical Laboratory Technologist (the lab rats), Medical Radiation Technologist (the X-ray gang), Medical Technician (the field medics), Physician Assistant (senior field medics, sergeants/petty officers 2nd class and above).
Chaplain Branch - Chaplains
Intelligence Branch - Intelligence Officers (the spooks with commissions), Intelligence Operators (the spooks)
Legal Branch - Legal Officers (military lawyers)
Military Police Branch/Canadian Forces Military Police - Military Police Officers (the redcaps with commissions), Military Police (the redcaps)
Personnel Selection Branch - Personnel Selection Officers (specialists in helping personnel switch trades if required)
Public Affairs Branch - Public Affairs Officers (they who talk to the media)
Training Development Branch - Training Development Officers (they who help construct all training syllabi)
Also, the
Dental Branch/Canadian Forces Dental Services can also be seen as a "purple" department even if all Dental Officers and Dental Technicians wear Army green these days as traditionally, before 1968, all dental health care for the RCN, Army and RCAF was handled by the Army
Royal Canadian Dental Corps.
Atop that, certain of the other above-listed trades wear a single environmental uniform per traditions. Moblie Systems Equipment Operators and Traffic Technicians either wear the air or land uniforms. Postal Clerks are all in Army green (the pre-1968 Canadian Postal Corps, like the RCDC mentioned above, handled all postal issues for the RCN, Army and RCAF).
Furthermore, there are members of other branches that work in either all environments (sea, land, air) or any two environments (usually land and air) which could be seen also as "purple trades." They are:
Communications and Electronics Branch - Communications Research Operators (the electronic warfare people) (sea/land/air)
Military Engineering Branch/Canadian Military Engineers - Construction Technician (they who build buildings) (land/air), Electrical Distribution Technicians (the wiremen) (land/air), Electrical Generating Systems Technicians (the power suppliers) (land/air), Plumbing and Heating Technicians (the plumbers) (land/air), Refrigeration and Mechanlical Systems Technicians (the freezer repairmen) (land/air), Water Fuels and Environmental Technicians (the water and fuel cleaners) (land/air)
I may have missed some of the higher-ranked remuster trades (i.e. like the situation when Medical Technicians become sergeants/petty officers 2nd class and are remustered into Physician Assistants), but all this comes from the Canadian Forces recruiting site.