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Auxiliary Commandant Letter of Commendation Award (ACLOC)

 

A.7.  Auxiliary Commandant Letter of Commendation Award

 

 This award is the Auxiliary’s ACLOC equivalent to the Coast Guard’s Commandant Letter of Commendation (CLOC) award.  Coast Guard units and Directors can prepare award citations using the same criteria, format, and style as the USCG CLOC.
A.7.a.  Eligibility Criteria The award is intended for Auxiliarists serving in any capacity with the Coast Guard or Auxiliary for an act of service resulting in unusual and/or outstanding achievement, whose performance is lesser than that required for the Auxiliary Achievement Award.  The award can also be used to recognize an Auxiliarists’ service/performance for a special event or project.  Commanding Officers/Group Commanders, Directors, division chiefs of HQ, MLC, ISC or District offices, O-4 and above, can approve the ACLOC.  Recommendations are made on the CG-1650 award recommendation form and submitted to the approving official, via the member’s chain of leadership and management.

 
A.7.b.  Award Elements The ribbon is similar to the Coast Guard Letter of Commendation ribbon with the addition of a vertical white stripe in the middle to identify the ribbon as an Auxiliary award.  The Auxiliary award consists of a ribbon and a miniature medal (the Coast Guard award is a ribbon only).  The “O” device may be authorized for direct participation in missions of an operational hands-on nature.  Members indicate multiple awards by adding a 5/16-inch gold or silver stars.

 

 

D13 AWT ACLOC (ALC) Comments:

 

This award was created to fill the void between normal Auxiliary unrewarded “well done” performance and “performance over and above that which would be expected.”

 

Think about:  “Performance over and above that which would be expected”.  That does not mean sustained performance at that level.  It does not mean outstanding performance above that which is expected.  Many members step up for a single special event during which they perform yeoman  service or achievement.

 

This award, as all others, is for enhanced performance.  So just doing your minimal job as you agreed to do, will not suffice.  The problem we encounter is the “Well, it’s just part of the job” description for efforts that are enhanced or outstanding.  This award looks for those members who take their printed Auxiliary job description or current mission and then go beyond the minimal job description. 

 

This can be in any area and either working with the USCG or with the Auxiliary.

 

This award can be initiated by any Auxiliarist for any member.  It can also be initiated by USCG as described in the criteria above.

 

As I write this, I can think of about 25 members in my division who easily fit these award criteria.  I’ll bet that you can also think of many Auxiliarists that qualify for this award.  There is no reason we cannot award 200 or more of these across D13 in a calendar year where appropriate.

 

This is the award that says “Thank You” to those Auxiliarists who work in the background doing enhanced work.

 

Some examples that I can think of:

 

  • The team that puts together the directory (Flotilla or Div)
  • The team that puts together the COW
  • The teams that man the successful boat shows, (especially the put it up and take it down folks).  The member who works two shifts because someone didn’t show.
  • The IS officer who reorganizes and brings the unit’s data up to date.
  • The Auxiliarists who work with the USCG on special projects or events for extended hours or who travel exceptional distances.
  • The boat-crew who go back to tow a boat after a long day of patrols.

 

This award is not for sustained, exceptional service.  See the Auxiliary Achievement Medal (AAM) for that.

 

This award can also be “O” (operations) oriented but it does not have to be about operations.

 

This award can be approved by LCDR and above (DIRAUX).  It does not have to go all the way through the formal USCG awards process.  Therefore, successful awards can be processed quickly.

 

This award can be for work done for the USCG and can be approved by local USCG commanders as described above.

 

Do not be concerned with the USCG CG-1650 form mentioned above.  That is a USCG tracking and routing form and it is not necessary for awards in D13.

 

“Chain of Leadership” issues:  You may choose to work this award through your normal chain or send your recommendations directly to the D13 AWT at awt@d13cgaux.org..  In any case we recommended that you keep your immediate chain informed using a CC.  All awards nominations will end up with the AWT at awt@d13cgaux.org no matter what the source.  It always helps an award nomination if the award nomination is endorsed by the nominee’s chain, but that is not required.

 
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