Posted on May 2, 2022
Can my CO just decide to never sign an award I submitted?
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I have been told many times that anyone can submit an award. I put together an ETS award for one of my soldiers and a PCS award for another soldier. The soldier who ETS'd never got an award. I asked my S1 if my Commander, 1SG, or anyone in the unit submitted him for an award, which she told me they had not. I didn't think it was right that the soldier who ETS'd after spending 13 years in our unit was not receiving an award, especially because he was one of the top soldiers in the unit who devoted much of his free time outside of drill weekends to the unit. I am currently the XO, but I was his PL for 2 years so I decided to do it myself. I also submitted an ETS award for my Supply Sergeant who PCS's in June. I emailed my Commander the awards a week ago but there has been no movement on them. Can she just blatantly disregard my awards? I know that she is supposed to sign them and either approve or disapprove them, but isn't there a rule or something that Commander's have to sign things within a timely manner. Can she just decide to not sign them at all?
Posted in these groups: 
Awards
Awards
Posted 2 y ago
Responses: 12
Ma'am, in AR 600-8-22, Military Awards, dated 5 March 2019, section 3-21 will have your answer. But, I want to bring two subsections to your attention:
j. Each headquarters and organization will establish internal procedures to ensure that every award recommendation is processed with a minimum of delay. Recommendations requiring action by HRC or higher authority should arrive no later than 60 days prior to the desired presentation date. All other recommendations should be approved or disapproved within command channels within 60 days of initiation.
and
n. Once the recommendation is entered into official channels, commanders at each echelon have 10 calendar days to take action on the award commensurate with their authority. The award must continue to process through the appropriate channels to the approval/disapproval authority.
Now, I also want to bring to your attention that there is no regulatory guidance/requirement to approve/give a Soldier an ETS nor PCS award. Are/were the Soldiers flagged? Have you asked why there has been no movement? Also...if memory serves, the awards need to be processed thru ePAT, which involves S1.
j. Each headquarters and organization will establish internal procedures to ensure that every award recommendation is processed with a minimum of delay. Recommendations requiring action by HRC or higher authority should arrive no later than 60 days prior to the desired presentation date. All other recommendations should be approved or disapproved within command channels within 60 days of initiation.
and
n. Once the recommendation is entered into official channels, commanders at each echelon have 10 calendar days to take action on the award commensurate with their authority. The award must continue to process through the appropriate channels to the approval/disapproval authority.
Now, I also want to bring to your attention that there is no regulatory guidance/requirement to approve/give a Soldier an ETS nor PCS award. Are/were the Soldiers flagged? Have you asked why there has been no movement? Also...if memory serves, the awards need to be processed thru ePAT, which involves S1.
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1LT (Join to see)
Thank you, Yes they do need to be processed through ePAT, but for some reason I believe it needed to be signed by my Commander before it goes into ePAT. I will double check with my S1 on that. I know there is no requirement to approve or give these soldiers awards, it was just something that I thought they deserved. Neither of the Soldiers were flagged, they were both top-tier Soldiers. I try to avoid talking to my CO at all costs because of how she treats me and others in the unit so I have not specifically asked her why there has been no movement but I was planning to send a follow up email this week. I briefly looked at the regulation last week but I wasn't able to find my specific answer whether the CO could just ignore the submission of my awards all together. I will go back and review it again. Thank you for your response and help.
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MSG (Join to see)
1LT (Join to see) - ooofdah. Sounds like a possible toxic situation. Good luck. Glad I could be of help.
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Oh...one more thing. As for the "anyone can submit," that is technically correct but also technically incorrect. The regs state the submitter should be a person that has direct personal knowledge or superior in rank. What this means is that...say your Supply Specialist wants to put in an award for the Supply Sergeant but doesn't know how or that they think the award will go nowhere because of their rank. Now, while the Specialist has direct knowledge, they could come to you and provide all pertinent details to you and you can then write up/submit the award.
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The commander has the option to sign it, down grade it, or send it back as unsuitable. In a nut shell, they don't have to sign any award the don't beleive is mertited
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