Can a Soldier be recommended/approved for awards while flagged for APFT failure?

SSG Fernandez

Soldier was not flagged dur­ing the period cap­tured in the award rec­om­men­da­tion. (6 month period)but received a HT/WT flag before award got the O6 sig­na­ture. (Example award was for JAN-June. Sent for­ward in July and flagged in August.)Is the SM still able to get the award?

• Mac Arthur D. "Mackie" Ocampo

  
  Tuesday, 25 October, 2011 at 14:48
  

  SSG Fernandez,

  No, The Soldier is not eli­gi­ble to receive the award (unless oth­er­wise stated below — waiver for HW). See AR 600–8-22, Par 1–17 with spe­cial empha­sis on a(1):

  a. Personal dec­o­ra­tions. A medal will not be awarded or pre­sented to any indi­vid­ual whose entire ser­vice sub­se­quent to the time of the dis­tin­guished act, achieve­ment, or ser­vice has not been hon­or­able. The deter­mi­na­tion of “hon­or­able” will be based on such hon­est and faith­ful ser­vice accord­ing the stan­dards of con­duct, courage, and duty required by law and cus­toms of the ser­vice of a mem­ber of the grade to whom the stan­dard is applied. Commanders will ensure that—

  (1) Individuals on whom favor­able per­son­nel actions have been sus­pended nei­ther are rec­om­mended for nor receive awards dur­ing the period of the sus­pen­sion. Exceptions to the above are Soldiers who are flagged for APFT fail­ure, in accor­dance with AR 600–8–2, para­graph 1–15.

  (2) Other-than-honorable ser­vice sub­se­quent to sub­mis­sion of the rec­om­men­da­tion for an award is promptly reported to the awards approv­ing author­ity with a rec­om­men­da­tion for appro­pri­ate action.

  b. Waiver for over­weight. As an excep­tion to sub­para­graph a(1), above, a Soldier who is flagged for over­weight may be rec­om­mended for and pre­sented an award based on valor, hero­ism, or for length of ser­vice retire­ment. A waiver of the over­weight flag must be processed to the first gen­eral offi­cer in the Soldier’s chain of com­mand for approval or dis­ap­proval. A waiver for over­weight is not required for award of the Purple Heart. Approval or dis­ap­proval author­ity is del­e­gated to the first gen­eral offi­cer in the chain of com­mand. Waivers will be processed as sep­a­rate and dis­tinct actions from the award rec­om­men­da­tion, and should be sub­mit­ted and adju­di­cated prior to sub­mis­sion of the award rec­om­men­da­tion. Approved waivers will accom­pany the award rec­om­men­da­tion once submitted.

  Reply

  • Soldier

    
    Wednesday, 22 February, 2012 at 10:45
    

    I’ve read THIS excerpt sev­eral times, and can’t seem to make sense of what it is try­ing to say…

    Maybe some­one could help me understand?

    I’m ‘assum­ing’ “other-than-honorable” ser­vice would be if a Soldier received some sort of unfa­vor­able infor­ma­tion like a let­ter of admon­ish­ment or a GO Letter of Reprimand.…

    Is THIS say­ing that a Soldier can still receive an award, even with the “other than hon­or­able service”? .…

    Does any­one here have expe­ri­ence with sub­mit­ting a “rec­om­men­da­tion for appro­pri­ate action” for a Soldier who has had “other than hon­or­able ser­vice”? If I feel the Soldier is still deserv­ing of an award, I can still sub­mit the award and anno­tate on it that they received some­thing like an arti­cle 15 or a let­ter of reprimand?

    “(2) Other-than-honorable ser­vice sub­se­quent to sub­mis­sion of the rec­om­men­da­tion for an award is promptly reported to the awards approv­ing author­ity with a rec­om­men­da­tion for appro­pri­ate action.”

  • Mark Gerecht

    
    Wednesday, 22 February, 2012 at 20:43
    

    For Clarification if a Soldier is flagged for an APFT fail­ure they may still be sub­mit­ted for an award. The only thing that a Flag for fail­ing the APFT pre­vents is:pro­mo­tion, reen­list­ment, and exten­sion only.

    Therefore a Soldier who has failed a PT test can be sub­mit­ted or and approved for an award if the chain of com­mand feels it appro­pri­ate. Unfavorable infor­ma­tion could be sev­eral things but let’s try this: You sub­mit the award for the Soldier that failed the APFT and then he later placed on the weight con­trol pro­gram, receives and arti­cle 15, etc. Then the award rec­om­men­da­tion will be with­drawn as his con­duct no longer is ser­vice­able. Keep in mind the Soldier’s con­duct must be “Honorable” from the time the award is sub­mit­ted until it is presented.

    I hope this clar­i­fies the point

  • Mark Gerecht

    
    Wednesday, 22 February, 2012 at 20:45
    

    Also just to make sure we are on the same sheet our terms of “hon­or­able” and “Other Than Honorable” are talk­ing to how the Soldier per­forms dur­ing a period of time.
    We are not talk­ing about types of dis­charges: Honorable, Other Than Honorable, Bad Conduct, Dishonorable.