• Commissioned Officers’ Awards Program

  Eligibility under COAP

  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.
     1. 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.
     2. 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.
     3. 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:
     1. 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.
     2. 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.
  5. 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).

  Last Updated: 10/14/22
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