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- Travel, PCS and Transportation
- Important Regulation Changes
- Travel & Transportation Entitlements Summary
- Permanent Change of Station (PCS)
- Temporary Duty (TDY)
- Junior COSTEP Travel Information
- Official Travel Forms
- Household Goods Officers
- Transportation
- Government Travel Charge Card
- Table of Frequently Used Acronyms
- Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
- Links
- Travel and Transportation Allowances FAQ
- About Personnel & Career Management
- Awards-Officer Awards Program
- Nominations Procedures and Forms
- Eligibility to Receive Awards
- Approval Levels
- Types of Recognition & Awards Criteria
- Non-PHS Awards
- Write-Up (Narrative) Guidance & Tips
- List of OPDIV Awards Coordinators (PDF, 67kb)
- List of Liaisons (PDF, 266kb)
- 2021 USPHS Awards Process Flowchart (PDF, 702kb)
- FAQs
- PHS Award Recipients
- DEERS Information (PDF, 139kb)
- Important Information Regarding DEERS and ID Cards During COVID-19 (PDF, 57kb)
- eCORPS Information
- Education Benefits Overview
- FAQs
- Forms
- Electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF)
- eOPF FAQs
- eOPF Status
- FAQs Practice Hours and Special Pay Changes
- Licensure
- Transcripts FAQs
- Extramural and Intramural Training FAQs
- Officer Leave and Absence Request FAQ
- Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)
- Veteran Health Administration (VHA) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Practice Hours
- Link to list of Professional Advisory Committee (PAC) Chairs (PDF, 19kb)
- About Policy
- Commissioned Corps Issuance System
- Equal Opportunity
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Political Restrictions
- Promotion Ceremony Protocol (PDF, 126kb)
- SGHG Drill and Ceremonies Manual (PDF, 3.39mb)
- Uniform Specifications
- PHS Hard Shoulder Boards and Sleeve Insignia (Male and Female) (PDF, 828kb)
- PHS Soft Shoulder Marks (Unisex) (PDF, 324kb)
- Medical Requirements for Promotion
- Force Readiness Information
- Link to list of Chief Professional Officers (CPO) (PDF, 348kb)
- Link to list of Liaisons (PDF, 266kb)
- Promotion Board Recommendations
- Not promoted? Now What?
- FAQs
- Board Composition and Scoresheet FAQs
- Officer Promotion Packet Verification System (OPPVS) Timeline & FAQs
- Promotion, Readiness and Compliance FAQs
- Permanent Promotion Eligibility Chart
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- Visit CDC.gov for Coronavirus (COVID-19) Public Health Updates
As Public Health Service Officers and America’s Health Responders, we stand ready to preserve public health and national security during national or global health emergencies. Our mission is to be out the door as soon as requested, as this is an “all hands on deck” situation. All Corps officers were placed on involuntary deploy or "alert" status effective Wednesday, March 25, 2020, irrespective of the 'on-call month' status. Under Commissioned Corps Directive 121.02, "Deployment and Readiness," as directed by Assistant Secretary for Health, Commissioned Corps Headquarters will deploy Commissioned Corps officers assigned to HHS OpDivs/StaffDivs, either voluntarily or involuntarily and without supervisory approval, who are not considered mission critical, for deployments, under the current National Emergency. Mission critical requests sent to CCHQ are not final until the request is approved by the CCHQ Director as per the POM 821.76 ”Deployment Procedures”. An officer with a non-HHS organization may be deployed in accordance with the Memorandum of Agreement/Understanding between the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the non-HHS organization.
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Commissioned Officers’ Awards Program (COAP)
Nomination Procedures and Forms
All awards are submitted electronically via email.
Paper awards are no longer accepted.Honor Awards
Each recommendation for an individual or unit honor award must be formally initiated within 13 months after the noteworthy act or specific period of service to be recognized. All nominations should have at least one level of Supervisory / Line Authority review and endorsement. Please utilize digital/electronic signatures whenever possible.
- Individual Honor Awards [Distinguished Service Medal (DSM); Meritorious Service Medal (MSM); Outstanding Service Medal (OSM); Commendation Medal (CM); Achievement Medal (AM); and Citation (CIT)] – utilize Form PHS 6342-2 (PDF, 266kb).
- Unit Honor Awards [Outstanding Unit Citation (OUC) and Unit Commendations (UC)] – utilize Form PHS 6342-1 (PDF, 414kb)
Service Awards
No form is utilized for submission of Service Awards; specific authorization memos are used.
Awards Boards
- Agency Awards Board (AAB) – Most agencies have their own AAB for review of Honor Award nominations. They have delegated authority for final approval of OSM and below and UC. Those agencies without an AAB have their nominations reviewed by the CCIAB.
- Commissioned Corps Interagency Awards Board (CCIAB) – Managed by COAP, reviews all non-agency honor award nominations, and those without an AAB, e.g. DoD, DHS/IHSC, PAC, and deployment.
- PHS-Commissioned Corps Awards Board (PHS-CCAB) – Managed by COAP, reviews all high level honor award nominations after an initial board review, i.e. DSM, MSM, OUC and any award w/Valor.
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Mixed Bag Awards – Shall have a Single Point of Contact in the Liaison Program Coordinator who can be reached at mixedbagawards@hhs.gov. The Liaison Program Coordinator in this role will ensure:
- No award duplication/overlap
- Award submission timeline is met
- Eligibility requirements are met IAW CCI 511.01 6-9
- Tracking of awards submissions
- Feedback is provided back to the nominator once a decision has been met
Procedures
- Agency Awards – Please contact your Agency Awards Coordinator or Agency Commissioned Corps Liaison to determine the procedure for award submission for both Honor and Service Award nominations.
- PAC and SG Appointed Group Awards (non-PAC) – Honor awards are submitted directly to the Liaison Program Coordinator at mixedbagawards@hhs.gov for review by the CCIAB. Special Assignment Awards (SAA) are routed through the OSG’s Director of Operations for SG approval prior to their submission to COAP for processing.
- Deployment Awards – Honor Awards are managed by the Team Commanders/Leads and are submitted in coordination with the Readiness and Deployment Branch (RDB), the Liaison Program Coordinator, and COAP. Service Awards are determined by level of authorization (see COAP Introduction webpage) and are submitted by RDB to COAP for processing after receiving approval from the Director of CCHQ. Individual requests for deployment related Service Awards will not be processed. FMRB eligible lists are run by RDB and after receiving approval are forwarded to COAP for processing.
Timelines
- Agency Awards Board – Held as often as the agency deems necessary; please contact your Agency Awards Coordinator and/or Agency Liaison for specific deadlines for submissions.
- CCIAB – Held monthly, generally within the first two weeks of the month; nominations submitted in the prior month are reviewed. Results are disseminated only upon receipt of the final approval memo from the SG, to the relevant Agency Liaison and/or Awards Coordinator, or in the case of deployment and SG Group awards, the Liaison Program Coordinator.
- PHS-CCAB – Held bi-monthly in even numbered months, generally on the first Tuesday of the month; nominations submitted 30 days prior reviewed. Results are disseminated only upon receipt of the final approval memo from the SG, to the relevant Agency Liaison and/or Awards Coordinator, or in the case of deployment awards directly to the nominator.
- Service Awards – agencies submit on a quarterly basis, whereas deployment awards and SG/PAC SAAs are submitted upon completion of mission, or term, with subsequent validation of participants and required approval.
- COAP – award processing is generally accomplished within 60-90 days after receipt from the agency (see the COAP Introduction webpage). In order to process awards for review during the next promotion cycle, agencies need to have submissions to COAP NLT September 1st moving forward. This means, awards submitted by 2359 on August 31st of each calendar year will be available for the upcoming promotion boards preceding the promotion year. Upload of relevant documents is accomplished within 30-60 days of processing.
If you still have questions, please visit the COAP FAQs webpage at: http://ccmis.usphs.gov/CCMIS/COAP/COAP_frequently_asked_questions_m.aspx
Last Updated: 6/28/23