Should someone be denied a retirement award, after 20 years of service and 4 deployments, because they're flagged for being overweight?

No.

The army only cares about your last best day. When you're broken, they throw you away. I never put much stock in retirement. I went reserve and started my own business. The best bet is to write your own paycheck. In twenty years, I'll be wealthy and unemployable.

My prior post was more succinct, so let me explain my position. I have a friend, an AF Nurse officer who was PCS'd to LRMC in 2004. She was an OR nurse/supervisor during her tenure there. She was there during the 2 Fallujah's, the DFAC bombing, and through 2005 & more than half of 2006. She worked ungodly hours in the OR, including during the time in '04 when the recovery room beds were expanded into ICU beds because the wards/ICU were FULL.
The injuries to these service memebers were horrificl, as only battle wounds can be. She's retired now, and as she retired from LRMC, she was not given an award at her retirement, because she was flagged for being overweight. YES, SHE WAS OVERWEIGHT, BUT SHE WAS ALSO HANGING ON BY HER FINGERNAILS TO TAKE GOOD CARE OF ALL WHO CAME THROUGH HER OR'S, DESPITE CHRONIC PAIN IN HER HANDS AND LEGS, AND DESPITE BEING TREATED LIKE CRAP BY THE AF COL IN CHARGE OF ALL LRMC AF STAFF MEMBERS. SHE PUT HER PATIENTS FIRST, AND CONTINUED TO TAKE THE VERY BEST CARE THAT THEY GOT WHAT THEY NEEDED, AND CONSIDERED IT AN HONORTO DO SO. So, basically, the AF policy and similar DOD branch policies, essentially shit on what you've done for 20 years and what you've gone through to ensure that your patients got what they needed.
That's a travesty, and I frankly don't want to hear from any 20 somethings sayiing she should have maintained your weight. What she did was maintain her skills, her devotion and her integrity, and that's worth far more than what a damn scale says!

If he or she is an NCO or an Officer if they are overweight not due to a catastrophic injury, than they should not get an award. Because they are not upholding the standards published in AR 600-9. But that does not stop your unit from giving him a plaque.

Weight has nothing to do with it. Meet the requirements and receive benefits that are earned by achieving the standard.

As an officer my soldiers come first, there is more to this question because it is a command issue that happens more frequently during draw downs; soldiers have rights and benefits that they have earned.

Not to sound like an ass, but what does a retirement award really mean in the bigger picture? I think retirement awards are nice and plenty of people don't get one for a variety of reasons. If your command doesn't give you a retirement award they have their reasons and again in the end its not going to really make a difference in the civilian sector.

Well being in as long as you have been you should have known what regs are on that standard and only you control your weight

Must be an Army thing, because I've never known anyone in the Navy that really cared about a retirement award...

My thoughts? Should have lost the weight.