Medal Redress?

[HeavyHooker]

Gentlemen,

I have a question and am hoping that someone on here can help out or at least provide a somewhat inexperienced leader like myself a gentle nudge in the right direction.  I put in two of my sub-ordiantes for commendation for acts in Afghanistan after a pretty traumatic incident.  Their performance was unquestionably brave and both troops acted with little regard for self and completed the mission to the best extent possible under the circumstances. 

The actions of one member saved several lives (call it well over a dozen) without question and the other member took command of a situation that was well advanced beyond his military training.  Although outranked several times over by most of those who were in the situation they initiated the defence and calmed those around them effectively and safely through their professionalism and bravery. 

Now that I have provided you with some intentionally vague background of the situation, my question is what to do when medal recommendation was shot down by a medal board comprised of Sr Leaders that are not even part of the unit or all that familiar with its workings or capabilities.  Is it possible to redress?  I know that you can submit commendation consideration requests directly to the GG through his website but that would be stepping on a pretty impressive number of toes along the way.  Would the media be a helpful outlet for this?  (I am thinking no to the media but it has been brought up to me).  Thoughts?

Really what I am asking for is a little bit of guidance here.  Any help, suggestions or potential COAs would be greatly appreciated.  Cheers.

 

[PuckChaser]

Was it denied outright or just put off until next years boards? There's a maximum number of each medal/commendation awarded each year, so there were members from TF1-06 at my ceremony with mostly TF3-07 individuals.

I can't remember off the top of my head who it is, but there is an individual on the board with intimate experience doing Honours and Awards that hopefully sees this thread. It would be a shame to see your subordinates not get the recognition they deserve.

 

[jollyjacktar]

It's a shame there is a limit on the number of nominations that can be made.  If one does something that rates recognition of this sort, then so be it.  Some years will have more than others I am sure and over time it will balance out I'd wager.  Recognition should be appropriate in both what award is granted but also the speed of delivery.  It should be reasonably swift, as I've bitched before the Yanks have it with their "Impact Awards" system of delivery.  The really big ones can be investigated, but others come while the deed is still fresh.  :2c:

 

[Old Sweat]

Is there a limit on the number of nominations or on the number of actual awards made? I suspect it may be in the latter.

 

[Infanteer]

My work with H&A is on the lower end of things vice Command level, but I have never seen or heard of a limit on how many commendations/medals are awarded each year.  I have heard that DHR once stated that not enough Meritorious Decorations were being put out (MSM/MSC), but that was just hearsay.  That being said, I don't know the inner magic at DHR and I have heard of some different SOPs within CEFCOM, so I could be wrong.

I'm going to assume you are back in Canada with your unit and that the original awards submission was done through TFK and CEFCOM.  The first thing you are going to need to do is track down where it was stopped and if it was stopped, why anything lower wasn't awarded.  Was it stopped in theater?  Did it make it back to CEFCOM?  At least with this information you'll have an idea of where the administrative issue is.

Next, you'll want to redo the original submissions again - DND 2448, Narrative, and Witness Statements.  Make sure they are good - perhaps the nomination simply died because of poor staff work.  You'll need to get two people on your side.  First, your going to have to convince your CO that an action deserving of recognition was overlooked.  Knowing where it stopped (see above) is going to help you convince him to sign off on the nomination.  Second, your unit Adjutant can assist you by getting you plugged into the G1/J1 chains; you're going to need to go through them to get that information on what previously occurred with the submission in theatre.  Finally, if the soldiers were NCMs, getting the RSM on board is probably a good thing, as they tend to be good at ensuring NCMs, especially junior ones, don't slip through the cracks when it comes time for tea and medals.

If your CO is convinced and goes up the chain and the Adjt is going up the net, then you should be able to push something to the Command level to sort it out with CEFCOM.

These are all generalities though, and I am just going with the basic procedure here; if you wish to PM me more details (unit/award level/time/etc) I can probably give you some more specific advice.  As well, there is another member of these forums who sat on H&A committees to review nominations that didn't make it the first time out of theatre; you may get more information here.

 

[HeavyHooker]

First of all, thanks very much for your replies gents, in particular Infanteer.  I have learned quite a bit in your posts and now have some direction that I can hopefully get this sorted out.  As far as where it was stopped, I am told it was at TFK Comd and the guys were both given TFK Commendations.  Although that is all well and good, the troops who worked in Ops received the same commendations for manning the radios.  I do not mean to disregard or downplay the importance of what they did but it was clearly not on the same scale as the men on the ground.

As far as the submissions, I think that my submissions were fairly solid but there is always room to improve and I have a superior who is a paperwork master who has helped me out immensely thus far that I can lean on for this as well.  The CO is already on board as is the RSM so we are good there but the Adjt I will have to talk to some more and get the info that you laid out.

Infanteer, I feel good about having some direction with this now and thank you very much.  I am going to proceed on with this through the CO/Adjt as you suggested and if I run in to more snags, I may wind up PMing you for some more detailed advice.  Thanks again.

HH

 

[Pusser]

There is NO limit to the number of nominations or even the number of awards of decorations.  There is a limit to the number of annual inductions into the Order of Military Merit, but we're not talking about that here.  DH&R has established guidelines/recommendations for the number of nominations for Meritorious Service Decorations or Military Valour Decorations, based on the number of members in a deployed unit; however, the actual number of nominations seldom reaches these recommendations.  The actual award of a Decoration is very much dependent upon the quality of the submission.  Another thing to keep in mind is that as the submission moves up the chain, the corporate memory comes into play and new nominations are compared to previous nominations.  DH&R will often bounce back submissions with recommendations to either upgrade or downgrade the nomination based on how they compare to previous awards.

In short, an action as seen by the witnesses at the time may seem amazing to them, but once compared to other actions, it is perhaps not so noteworthy.

Any submission directly to the Governor General will be immediately forwarded to DH&R and sent back down the chain for review.  Consider how that would go over with a Chain of Command that had already reviewed that recommendation...

 

[HeavyHooker]

To Pusser wrt direct to GG nominations.  Ack and thanks for the heads up.  Cheers

HH

 

[HeavyHooker]

Follow up question and forgive me if it is a tad direct.

As I am in the process of revamping and resubmitting the nomination, can anyone answer if there is a laundry list of items/key words/phrases to hit in order to ensure a successful nomination?  In other words, does the approval/denial process work similar to a PER board where certain items must be present for the promotion.  I am not asking in order to BS my guys into getting commendations if that is how this sounds.  I am simply asking if I - as a leader inexperienced in this field - am missing something that will sell my men short.  I have thoroughly reviewed the honours and awards literature on the CMP's web page but I find some of the awards to sound quite similar.  Are there any more direct descriptors for each award or are they left intentionally vague to encompass a number of different possibilities.

Also, in having a small round table discussion at work today, we debated the following phrase:  "in the presence of the enemy".  Does this mean actively under fire while the task in question was executed?  Or simply in the presence of the enemy?  I know that may sound a little obvious but believe me when I say it was an interesting discussion.