Navy Vets! – Have an award missing from your records?

Here at Medals of America, we always have Veterans calling or posting on Facebook wondering about missing items from their DD-214. Today, I ran across the United States Navy’s official directions for correcting your missing medals. Check it out below.

UPDATE AWARDS: An award is missing from my record. What do I need to do to have it included?
Answer
Normally, individuals discover an award is missing from their record via one of following methods: NOTE: PERS 312 will not add an award to the OMPF if it is not in NDAWS. Any award mailed to them will be returned to sender and/or the Echelon II command that the recipient of the award reports to.

-Running an awards search from the Navy Department Awards Web Service (NDAWS) website

-Reviewing the Personnel Summary Record (PSR) from the BUPERS Online website

-Reviewing the Electronic Service Record (ESR) from NSIPS

-Reviewing the Electronic Training Jacket (ETJ)

-Reviewing the Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) via the Web Enabled Record Review (WERR) or ordering the CD ROM from BUPERS

Based on this, there are four scenarios presented below (A, B, C and D). Please read carefully, and find the one that fits your case:

A) If an award is missing from a search conducted via NDAWS:

• 1) Make a copy of your missing award certificate (the one with the embossed, color picture of the award).

• 2) Write your SSN and awarding authority UIC under the SSN at the top right-hand corner of the copy.

• 3) If your award is a Meritorious Service Medal or higher (excluding the Purple Heart), then you must also submit the citation that came with the certificate. The citation usually has 18-22 lines of text. Write your SSN and awarding authority UIC under the SSN at the top right-hand corner of a copy of the citation.

• 4) Send the copies of your certificates/citations to the NDAWS Authority/Administrator IN YOUR CHAIN-OF-COMMAND. A list of these commands, including mailing information will be posted under the “NDAWS Authorities” which can be found in the reference documents under the Approval Authorities tab. The commands that currently have access are listed under the Echelon II command that they ultimately report to.

Note: Once NDAWS has been updated, awards should reflect in the other electronic systems (PSR/ESR/ETJ) in approximately 1-2 weeks.

B) The award shows on your NDAWS/PSR/ESR/ETJ but a copy of your certificate/citation is missing from your OMPF/WERR/CD ROM:

• 1) Mail a legible, clean copy of the signed citation, with your SSN printed in the upper right hand corner and write “IN NDAWS NOT ON OMPF”, to:

Navy Personnel Command (PERS-312)

5720 Integrity Drive

Millington, TN 38055-3120.

No cover letter is required.

• 2) For questions go to NPC Records Management Website

C) If you run an NDAWS search for a personal award and find it in NDAWS but do not see the award in your PSR via BUPERS Online (BOL):

• 1) Mail a legible, clean copy of the signed citation, with your SSN printed in the upper right hand corner and write “IN NDAWS NOT ON PSR”, to PERS 312.

D) If you see an award in your PSR and it is not in NDAWS, send a copy of your certificate/citation to the NDAWS Authority/Administrator IN YOUR CHAIN-OF-COMMAND. Follow the steps in paragraph A) above.

Info gathered from http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/support/uniforms/Pages/default2.aspx