Awards

Commissioned Officers’ Awards Program (COAP)

The policy that primarily directs the COAP is CCI CC511.01. Nomination procedures, proper forms, types of awards and their criteria, etc., are all covered in this policy. Your first Point of Contact for awards guidance and issues should be your Agency Awards Coordinator and your Agency Liaison. Per policy, all officers are reviewed for award eligibility prior to processing. Officers must have a satisfactory COER, a current license (when required for commission), be basic ready, and must NOT have any adverse actions during the award period.

Eligibility for Awards

All active duty Commissioned Corps and DoD officers are eligible for PHS awards. All DoD officers must be approved by the DoD Liaison Officer prior to receiving a PHS award. All Commissioned Corps officers must also meet the following requirements per CCI 511.01 ”Awards Program.”

Each officer nominated for recognition under the COAP must:

1. Be in compliance with the Corps’ licensure policy

2. Have satisfactory Commissioned Officers’ Effectiveness Reports (COER) on file in CCHQ for each year covered by the recognition. All COERs on file for the period covered by the recognition must be rated as satisfactory. In addition, the most recent COER must be on file and must have a satisfactory rating; and

3. Not have any suspension of favorable personnel actions or pending or ongoing adverse actions.

An officer is not eligible to receive recognition under the COAP during periods of misconduct or other actions that lead to an adverse action or while an adverse action is actively managed by CCHQ.

An officer is ineligible to receive honor or service awards if the period of the award overlaps the period of misconduct or active adverse actions.

If the officer has been subject to a suspension of favorable personnel actions or an adverse action, CCHQ will return the nomination to the OPDIV/STAFFDIV/non-HHS organization without action. However, an explanation will be provided.

4. Meet the Corps’ Basic Force Readiness requirements as follows:

Officers nominated for an award that covers the officer’s career (e.g., submitted just prior to the officer’s retirement) must continuously meet the readiness requirements for the last five years of
the award period.

All other officers must continuously meet the readiness requirements, starting from the date of the award nomination through the date that the award is approved.

The Director, CCHQ, may rescind recognition when the award was inadvertently processed and should have been denied under Sections 6-9.a. b., c., or d. The Director, CCHQ, shall inform the officer, and the OPDIV, STAFFDIV, or non-HHS organization which initially approved or nominated the recognition of the rescission and its reason(s).

Types of Awards

Agency Approved Honor Awards: Those agencies that have their own Awards Board process can approve the: CIT, AM, CM, OSM, UC. Once through the agency approval process, awards are forwarded to COAP for final processing.

Awards for PHS- CCAB or CCIAB: All MSM, DSM and OUC awards are reviewed by the PHS Commissioned Corps Awards Board (PHS-CCAB). Awards from agencies without Awards Boards, deployment awards, and Professional Advisory Committee (PAC) awards are reviewed by the Commissioned Corps Interagency Awards Board (CCIAB). Any high level awards are then forwarded to the PHS-CCAB for the required second board review. Upon approval by the Surgeon General, all awards go through COAP final processing.

Awards received while attached to a DoD assignment: These awards are generally processed like an Agency Approved Award. However, these awards must undergo an additional review to ensure a PHS award for the same activity has not been previously approved. This is not allowed per policy – CCI 511.02, 6.

Service Awards: These are processed in batch submissions. Agencies submit eligible officers quarterly for agency earned awards. RedDOG submits the final eligible list for deployment related service awards upon completion of the deployment and required approvals. Exceptions will be those awards received upon graduation from Officer Basic Course (OBC). Again, these must go through final awards processing.

Prior Service Awards: COAP works with the Call to Active Duty (CAD) Team and Commissioned Officer Training Academy (COTA) Team to ensure prior service awards are entered for new CADs. All necessary documentation must be submitted during the CAD process. Additional award documentation will be processed as workload permits.

For more information on Nomination Procedures and Forms, please visit: https://dcp.psc.gov/CCMIS/COAP/COAP_nominations_m.aspx

For a description of awards and award acronyms please visit:
http://dcp.psc.gov/CCMIS/COAP/COAP_award_criteria_m.aspx

If you still have questions, please check the Awards Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).