Greetings members of Region 15 & marines of the 15th Brigade;

With 2018 well under way we find it is time once again to consider recognizing the work and efforts of the marines in your chapter/unit by nominating them for one of the SFMC annual awards. This is important for the Brigade as it of course gives credit and a well deserved pat on the back to a marine who deserves the recognition by going above and beyond the call of duty. It also helps us reflect on the past year and the fun things we did, and inspires us to move forward to new adventures. I encourage everyone to read the list of awards at the end of this post and really think about the marines that you interact with here in the Region/Brigade. Take some time to consider recognizing one by writing a nomination. While the recipient of the awards does need to be either and active or reserve member of the SFMC nominations can be submitted by anyone. Also remember that you are not limited to the marines in your chapter/unit. You can nominate any marine in the Brigade for an award.

While the focus at this time is the annual awards you will notice that the different merit awards are listed as well. Feel free to nominate someone for one of those as well. The official nomination phase will go from now till Friday June 22nd. Please send all nominations and questions to me at Workbee18@yahoo.com. All the members of the Brigade awards committee look forward to reading the different nominations we receive. So look over the awards, put your thinking caps on, and have some fun writing a nomination for one of the many deserving members of the 15th Brigade.

The Brigade’s Annual Awards, referred to as “Valor Awards” are fairly straight forward. Much like the region’s annual awards, they are meant to recognize the Brigade’s best in specific categories. As the word annual implies, these awards are designed to recognize activity during the entire 2017 calendar year. They are:

Marine of the Year,
Officer of the Year,
Volunteer of the Year
Unit of the Year.

When considering nominations for these recognitions it may be helpful to bear in mind that these marines selected will be our nominees to be recognized as the SFMC’s best.
In addition to these awards, there are a number of recognitions available to recognize contributions by members of the Brigade in a variety of areas. As these are not annual awards, there is a time requirement on most of these that the activity for which the marine is being recognized must have taken place within the last 6 months.

Brigade Service Commendation: Issued by the Brigade OIC, this award recognizes marines for exceptional service to the Brigade over a period of time. To be eligible for this award, the nominee needs to have served in an official capacity for at least 6 months.

SFMC Achievement Award: Issued by the Brigade OIC, this is similar to the Brigade Service commendation except it is for a specific service or task. The accomplishment should be of regional significance and reflect favorably on the Brigade.

Meritorious Unit Citation: Given to an MSG for either consistently outstanding performance over time or for a specific accomplishment of a high standard. This awards neither recommends unit for or precludes unit from the Unit of the Year.

If you would like to know more about the awards you can reference Section 8 of the Marine Force Manual via the following link.

http://www.sfi-sfmc.org/downloads/mfm1508.pdf

If you’d like to see a marine recognized and you don’t see an award that fits, please reach out to either myself or Tom Guertin, the BDE OIC at copysith@gmail.com and we will be happy to provide guidance. It is important to note this list only includes awards issued at the Brigade level. There are also many awards issued from the corps level as well.

LGN Paul “Ratchet” Fest, SFMC
95th Martian Modulators, USS Ares NCC-63591
Operations Officer, 15th Brigade, SFMC