AUXILIARY DISTINGISHED SERVICE AWARD
The Auxiliary Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) recognizes Auxiliarists who distinguish themselves by contributing exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service to the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Coast Guard Auxiliary Distinguished Service Award is only awarded by the Commandant.
The performance required to justify this award is exceptional performance of duty, which benefits the Auxiliary as a whole. This performance, therefore, must be clearly much higher than normally expected, and must have a measurable, positive effect on the entire organization. Normally this award will be given to elected and appointed officers for extraordinary achievement. This statement should not be interpreted so as to preclude the award to any Auxiliarist whose service meets the requirement. The key words for this award are distinguished, operational, and exceptional meritorious service. To justify this award, exceptional performance of duty, clearly much higher than normally expected, which has resulted in significant benefit to the entire Auxiliary organization, is required
The performance required to justify this award is exceptional performance of duty, which benefits the Auxiliary as a whole. This performance, therefore, must be clearly much higher than normally expected, and must have a measurable, positive effect on the entire organization. Normally this award will be given to elected and appointed officers for extraordinary achievement. This statement should not be interpreted so as to preclude the award to any Auxiliarist whose service meets the requirement. The key words for this award are distinguished, operational, and exceptional meritorious service. To justify this award, exceptional performance of duty, clearly much higher than normally expected, which has resulted in significant benefit to the entire Auxiliary organization, is required
AUXILIARY LEGION OF MERIT
This eligibility requirement closely parallels that for the Coast Guard Legion of Merit (LOM)...with the additional Auxiliary-focused provision that, "Recognized performance must clearly be much higher than expected and have a measurable, positive effect on the Auxiliary across multiple Auxiliary regions or at Auxiliary Area or National level." This is meant to focus ALOM recognition on performance whose impacts have a broad reach and affect more than one region.
The designated awarding authority is set at the level of Vice Admiral (i.e. Commandant/all Coast Guard vice Admirals), again to emphasize recognition of broad-reaching performance. This establishes awarding authority above the Plaque of Merit (which can be awarded by any Coast Guard Flag Officer) and below the Auxiliary distinguished Service Medal (ADSM - which can only be awarded by the Commandant). There is also a requirement for Auxiliary review of ALOM packages up to the NACO level prior to routing to District DFommand3er and above (as the ALOM effectively becomes the second highest level Auxiliary award, it is appropriate to ensure national level awareness and review).
The designated awarding authority is set at the level of Vice Admiral (i.e. Commandant/all Coast Guard vice Admirals), again to emphasize recognition of broad-reaching performance. This establishes awarding authority above the Plaque of Merit (which can be awarded by any Coast Guard Flag Officer) and below the Auxiliary distinguished Service Medal (ADSM - which can only be awarded by the Commandant). There is also a requirement for Auxiliary review of ALOM packages up to the NACO level prior to routing to District DFommand3er and above (as the ALOM effectively becomes the second highest level Auxiliary award, it is appropriate to ensure national level awareness and review).
| awards_manual_district.pdf |
