Posted on May 23, 2020
SGT Derick J.
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Deciding to submit an award for an individual within my supervision who displays an impressive amounts of Selfless Service and Personal Courage throughout any circumstance. Slight backstory would be them "deploying" to Poland, then returning to home station and their work efforts gradually increased. Their aspects of training subordinates also increased to a level where they were able to dedicate their own time during both on & off duty hours. Flexibility is a skill they display religiously. Lastly another individual was selected to have deployed, however the selected individual wasn't capable of deploying, but the awardee volunteered as a replacement and filled the desired slot. At a bare minimum a certificate of achievement would probably be suffice, however they've been able to display an impressive amounts of bravery, courage and overall the army values. This would be my first time submitting an award so any additional steps would be highly appreciated. Based off of our MOS, this dictates we're "Essential" personnel so I could possibly try to include this into the reasoning, because other sections in our unit are working no where close to ours. Awards are designed to display how the recipient stands out among their peers and I think this might be a great start.
Posted in these groups: Us medals Awards
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Responses: 5
SSG(P) Detachment Sergeant, Space Detachment
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Check with your orderly room or Bn S1 for a template.

If it’s your first time writing an award, my recommendation is to write the bullets in a word Document and share it with impartial NCOs and Officers to get feedback, then transfer onto a DA638. Submit through your NCO support chain for review by your PSG/PL, 1SG/CDR and CSM while in draft form (unsigned) on the DA638.

IF THEY ARE NOT THE APPROVAL AUTHORITY, THEY CANNOT DENY THE AWARD.
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CSM Charles Hayden
CSM Charles Hayden
4 y
The safest way to maintain a “draft” copy is to conspicuously Mark it “DRAFT” at the top and bottom of the page. That will remind everyone including you that it is not a completed document!!
SGT Derick J.

You have made a good start of enumerating the individual’s outstanding qualities!
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LTC Jason Mackay
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Edited 4 y ago
Please don't try and madlib someone's "template" for the bullets. As a BN XO, I had to spend countless hours trying to fix "the I'm gonna hook you up template" that went between all the young NCOs in my BN. Who ever wrote the initial one was damn near illiterate. They took fancy awardzee sounding words, spelled them wrong and used them wrong. Write what you know and what you saw, in your words.

The S1 should have a standard x number of lines citation to use, that is what goes on the certificate and the standard for the 638. For the bullets use STAR formats.
Situation
Task
Action
Result

Bridge it back to the approval authority's mission. This should not be overly difficult for an AAM.

Bullets are 3-4 sentences max. Each one stands alone. See if you need four or if they will accept 1-3 bullets. This varies between approval authorities.
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SGT Justin Brothen
SGT Justin Brothen
4 y
Laughed pretty good at your comment sir. "Who ever wrote the initial one was damn near illiterate"
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LTC Jason Mackay
LTC Jason Mackay
4 y
SGT Justin Brothen I am usually very developmental and try to educate the recommender with constructive comments. But on this they fought me and dragged ass. Awards would come back with the same gibberish. Had several come to Jesus meetings with my S1
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COL David Turk
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Looks like you’ve essentially wrote it.
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