What can be used on your Retirement award if you have already recieved awards throughout your career for major accomplishments?

I Think there are a lot of us in the same boat MSG.

I’m there with you MSG. I’m getting ready to retire and my PSG and PL said it would be better if I wrote my own retirement award. “They have no idea what I have done“. They are fully aware that I am working on my 29th year of military service. I was prior service marine Corp for 4 years. I spent 11 years in the National Guard. And then I spent 15 years active duty army.I also deployed twice to Iraq. I don’t know whether I should include all different branches of service in my award.

Mine either. I retired with 34 yrs and got zilcho. I see this as a direct reflection on your leaders...not you

I see varied years in this post, and I'm sorry for bringing it back up.

Write your award if asked! It seems weird, but if you have a leader who asks, you must write it; ultimately, they want to put you in for one. The leader who is asking will still read, validate, and submit.

Some leaders are afraid to write for fear of not doing justice to what you or whoever they want to recommend did thoroughly. Most definitely, they want you to get awarded if they ask you to write it, and they don't want to fail you.

I just submitted 3 AAMs, and it took me time to deliberate what they did. They were all solid SMs, but in these particular awards, I wasn't directly involved in their actions; I wrote to my knowledge of them. Honestly, I would have asked for bullets if it was a higher award. I am not trying to escape writing; I just want a better picture for the Award and them.

If this post takes, current Army 1SG, working through SGMA DL, ALL WRITING!

Greatly appreciate that

I agree with the statement above. The recommendation for an award has (for the majority of what I have seen in the last 10 years) been replaced by unit quotas for awards by rank/type and "if you want it, write up some bullets and I'll take a look at it". True awards should not be expected, but seriously, how is it taking care of someone who served honorably and dedicated an honest effort to the unit has become such a strenuous chore for leaders? It's blatant laziness and I will not allow myself to be convinced otherwise. At best, the "recommendee" is told BS excuses like, (and I have personally been told this as a SFC who has written many awards throughout my career that got approved) "this will help you develop your award writing skills". Thank you senior enlisted guy who would rather jabber with cohorts about nonsense and play on his phone than exercise his own purportedly superbly developed writing skills. The award ultimately will not mean jack post-Army. It will most likely be forgotten very quickly. But that isn't the point. If retirement/ETS/PCS/whatever awards don't matter then don't even authorize them. Stop wasting unit money on unit coins then. They mean nothing after the service. I think there needs to be a long look taken into how we send our service members off into the world. Strangers will thank them and offer recompense in the form of discounts and free this or that because of their veteran status for the remainder of their lives. But you are telling me that unless the departing SM writes his own bullets, those he served under and with won't lift a finger on the keyboard to send him off with a token of appreciation? I could continue this diatribe until my character limit is maxed but I will egress with, it is sad to see that young NCOs and even some of the older geezers are left hanging by those they busted their fourth point of contact for relentlessly.

MSG (Join to see) - I will say this. The expectation is that EVERY Soldier PCSing, ETSing, or retiring WILL depart with an award, unless they have done something that prohibits them from receiving an award. Your message about the Soldier asking where is my award is not a good message. If the Soldier is deserving of an award, they should expect an award and should not have to write the award themselves. If we are late on awards, we get the business from our CSMs, so again, it is an expectation that Soldiers departing WILL receive an award.

I have to write my own NCOers...

A retirement 638 is required to submit your retirement packet.

I realize this is months later, but I am running into a related problem. I helped write a retirement award for a Soldier that is retiring after 22 years of service. I only included the last ten years for reference, but I relied heavily upon quantifiable achievements that were mentioned on the Soldier's NCOERs and in the case of two bullets, previous awards. I did not plagiarize word for word in any case. However, the Bn S1 has returned the award claiming that you cannot use achievements that have already been recognized on previous awards. This seems really wrong to me....if the Soldier's supervisors were doing their jobs when he made significant accomplishments during his career, then he should have been previously recognized. And I don't think it correct to have to exclude those accomplishments from a retirement award. Any help would be appreciated....I checked AR 600-8-1 and did not find anything to help my case.

MSG Joseph Battisfore - Er......meant to say 600-8-22

MSG Joseph Battisfore - The BN S-1's idea that you cannot use achievements that have already been recognized on previous awards is definitely wrong for an of career award. End of career awards such as Legion of Merit require summarizing and specifying achievements in the previous 10 years.
I didn't find any specific language about exceptions for retirement awards. But I looked through AR 600-8-22. It might be worth looking at that documents as well.
1–23. Recognition upon retirement
a. Period of service. Each individual approaching retirement may be considered for an appropriate decoration based on his or her grade, years of service, degree of responsibility, and manner of performance.
b. Service recognition awards. The following awards may be awarded upon retirement:
(1) Meritorious service awards will be awarded, upon retirement (to include medical retirements), which may include periods of service longer than that served in the recommending command. An extended period will only be considered in those cases where the length or nature of the individual’s terminal assignment would not qualify him or her for an appropriate award. It is neither necessary nor desirable to consider an extended period of service when the length and character of service of retirees in their terminal assignments would qualify them for an appropriate award.
This is not to imply that an extended period of service should be considered for every individual who retires, such periods will be limited to the last 10 years of service. When writing the citation, it is not necessary to indicate the time period again; it is only pertinent to mention the total number of years of service, for example, over 22 years or 30 years of service.
(2) Only one retirement award may be awarded to any retiring Soldier. Soldiers serving under the Retiree Recall
Program are not authorized a second retirement award or an upgrade of a previously approved retirement award.
Service awards for Retiree Recall Servicemembers are at the discretion of the commander.
c. Submissions. Award recommendations submitted for meritorious service based upon retirement will be submitted so that they may be processed and completed prior to the requested presentation date. In determining the presentation date, the recommender must consider the Soldier’s requested retirement date, number of days of any transition leave, and authorized travel and/or transition processing time. Recommendations for awards submitted to Commander, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, Awards and Decorations Branch (AHRC–PDP–A), 1600 Spearhead Division Avenue, Fort Knox, KY 40122–5408, for final action should arrive no less than 90 days before the desired presentation date.

Thank you Sir. I read the same thing, and also cannot find anything that prohibits or otherwise mentions the inclusion of previously recognized achievements on a retirement award. This whole situation frustrates me in that the Bn does not dispute that the Soldier is deserving of the award, but for some reason are trying to hold the award to a unsubstantiated requirement. Being retired and removed from things, I dont really have a voice in this process and worse yet, it sounds like the Bn S1 has gotten the BC involved to the point where this could easily turn into a pissing match. Regardless, thanks for your advice and time.

CSM (Join to see) This Soldier, a SGT-5 with eight years of service, one deployment and a blank Rally Point Profile absolutely should receive his second Good Conduct Medal. There is no information to support any other award.

Is the retirement award still in play or did it fade away. I haven't heard anything new on this subject in awhile?

I heard the idea discussed in different circles. Not sure where it's at or if it's a dead issue. but IMO it would recognize the difference between an individual who retired from service and those that served. As for an personal award, "if earned" they could awarded in addition to the Retiree Medal.

I like that idea.

not sure what you mean by enough Sir?

Disregard.