Can you put yourself in for an award?

2024-09-06T08:57:32-04:00

If you’re about to retire and your unit doesn’t provide you an retirement award, can you place yourself for a retirement award?

Response by COL Randall C. made Sep 6 at 2024 9:41 AM

2024-09-06T09:41:04-04:00

No. You can write it up and bring it to the attention of a senior individual who was familiar with your actions and/or your chain of command, but self-nominations are not allowed (AR 600-8-22*, para 3-5).
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* AR 600-8-22 (Military Awards) - https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN30935-AR_600-8-22-000-WEB-1.pdf

ARN30935-AR_600-8-22-000-WEB-1.pdf

Response by SSgt Christophe Murphy made Sep 6 at 2024 10:23 AM

2024-09-06T10:23:25-04:00

You can draft the writeup and do your fair share of running it up the flag pole but the submitter can't be you. Someone will have to submit for you. I did majority of the grunt work for every award I received except for my very first. I had a similar issue pop up when I was being medically retired. Hold your ground and eventually someone from the head shed will end up assigning someone to run it.

Response by SFC Birk Ellis made Sep 6 at 2024 11:06 AM

2024-09-06T11:06:57-04:00

The main question is why does it matter?

Not taking away from an accomplished career, you know what you did during your time. After you remove the uniform for the last time, nobody on the outside cares what award or evaluation was given prior to retirement.

The only "award" that matted to me when my time came was a DD214 and the issuance of the blue ID card.

Anything else is just fluff and dog and pony show.

Response by SSG Donald Kuhns made Sep 7 at 2024 3:38 PM

2024-09-07T15:38:19-04:00

Really? No. You should be ashamed to even consider tooting your own horn for what is best known as "fruit salad". Your troops deserve recognition from you, ypu will get yours from your superiors if the deem it appropriate. As for myself, I turned down awards infront of the command because they refused to acknowledge the same awards I put my troops in for. Hope that huge red handprint from slapping yourself on the back scares you for life Major Arrogant.