Identify the problem type

• Already awarded but missing: locate the orders, citation or award authority and correct the personnel/separation record.
• Clerical error: use the service’s administrative correction channel.
• Denied or downgraded recommendation: use the service-specific reconsideration/appeal process and its evidence/time rules.
• Historic or late award request: identify whether a statutory or service-specific late-submission route exists.
• Record remains wrong after lower-level remedies: DD Form 149/BCMR or BCNR may be the correction route after exhaustion.

Build the award evidence chain

• Orders and unit records
• Original recommendation and endorsements
• Citation or certificate
• After-action, operational or mission records
• Witness statements where necessary
• Prior disapproval, downgrade or reconsideration decision
• Personnel/separation record showing the omission or error

DoD Manual 1348.33 supplies department-level awards policy, but individual services control many recommendation, reconsideration and record-correction procedures. Army’s 10 U.S.C. § 1130 guidance is an example of a service-specific path; do not apply it automatically to another branch.

Official sources

• DoD — Military Decorations and Awards Manual
• DoD — DD Form 149
• 10 U.S.C. § 1552
• Army HRC — 10 U.S.C. § 1130 Awards Processing Guidance

Source status: SRC-064; SRC-065; SRC-072; SRC-073 verified October 4, 2026. Use the current decision notice and service-specific procedure when it is more specific than this navigation guide.