Before counseling the Soldier I encourage you to read AR 600-8-2 and AR 600-8-22 as exceptions do exist under some circumstances. If you decide to not recommend the award, counsel the Soldier on DA Form 4856.
The counseling form should include text that looks something like this:
___{INSERT RANK/NAME} on ____{INSERT DATE} it was determined by the chain of command that you would not be recommended for an award because you are overweight and IAW with AR 600-8-2 an award recommendation is not authorized.
When a Soldier completes a tour with a unit they may be recommended for an award commonly referred to as a PCS or end of tour award. There is no regulatory requirement for a Soldier to be recognized during an End of Tour or PCS. An award is earned by maintaining high standards of performance and meeting all Army standards. Unfortunately you have failed to meet the Army standard for Weight Control and as a result the command cannot forward a recommendation for an award.
The Chain of Command does value your contribution to the unit and as such has decided to present you with:____ {ENTER AS APPROPRIATE: Company Coin, Letter of Appreciation, Certificate of Appreciation, 4 day pass, etc} While I understand this cannot be compared to an award it is the only course of action we have to formally say we appreciate your service and contribution to making this unit successful.
While I understand that you may not agree with our decision to enforce regulatory guidance, I encourage you to use this as a motivational opportunity to meet the weight standard established by the Army and accept the item(s) of appreciation listed above in a professional manner.
If you can make the weight requirement prior to your departure from the unit I will consider recommending you for an award.
Read The Mentor: Everything you need to know about leadership and counseling for more information about Counseling, Leadership, Corrective Training, and Separations in the Army.
Comments
SGT CHAVIS
It should be when the award is approved, one is sent to your OEMPF (Official Enlisted Military Personnel File). iPERMS is a means for providing electronic document management of your OEMPF. The reason why some awards are approved in advance is policy, whoever is in charge of Kuwait probably has a policy letter stating when awards are suppose to be submitted for approval. This can be 30, 60, 90+ days before redeployment, depending on the award. Most units wait to do a deployment award ceremony 30 days before leaving country even though the awards were approved in advance.
The award is permanent on your OEMPF, consider yourself lucky if S1 puts it on their correctly. It’s a good thing because if you get audited for promotion the awards must be on your OEMPF during the auditing process; your ERB does not suffice.
The only way an award can be revoked is by information not known at the time the award was approved justify a lesser award or not one at all. I have seen this happen with unit commendation awards but not individual awards the awarding authority is the revoking authority. FYI this is not the same for identifier schools and tabs, those awards can be revoked for numerous reasons. Read up on 600-8-22 for more information on revoked awards.
Deployments are in cycles, awarding five to thirty five thousand awards at the same time could mean you get your award two to three months after deployment. Awards I have written have to be submitted 90 to 120 days into deployment.
Soldier
Top,
I was wondering if you could help me with a question about awards….from either your own personnal experience and/or any applicable regulation….
At what point, during a deployment, are awards to be iPERMED?
….here in Kuwait, I am seeing some units that are iPERM’ing their awards a good 2-3 months prior to the completion of their tours.
Now, if an award is iPERMED, that makes it “permanent”, correct?
Now…what happens if a Soldier receives some sort of UCMJ/Article 15/Administrative action? If their award is iPERMed, can their award be rescinded somehow?
It seems, at least to me, a bit “premature” to iPERM awards before the actual completion of a deployment…..especially several months before the end…..