MCO 1650.19J - Administrative and Issue Procedures for Decorations, Medals, and Awards

Scope

MCO 1650.19J prescribes administrative and issue procedures for decorations, medals, and awards, and sets policy for submitting personal and unit award recommendations. Awards encompass all personal, unit, campaign, and service awards. The order is the Marine Corps operational layer under the Department of the Navy awards policy, every recommendation, endorsement, presentation, and record entry runs on its procedures.

Audience

• Award writers and originating officers at every command level.
• S-1 awards clerks preparing, routing, and tracking nominations.
• Commanders approving field-grade awards inside their authority and endorsing the rest upward.
• Marines verifying their own award entitlements and record entries.

Structure

Enclosure 1 carries awards administration in two sections. Section 1 holds the issue-side procedures, foreign award acceptance at paragraph 4, presentation at paragraph 5, initial issue at paragraph 6, display at paragraph 7, verification at paragraph 8, and certificates at paragraph 9. Section 2 holds the recommendation-side procedures, documentation at paragraph 3, criteria at paragraph 5, level of award at paragraph 6, the awards board at paragraph 7, and routing at paragraph 8. The order carries five enclosures, confirmed against the signed order with CH-1 on 2026-07-15. Enclosure 2, Administrative Procedures for Submission of Recommendations for Personal Decorations and Other Special Recognition. Enclosure 3, Procedures for Submission of Recommendation for Unit Awards. Enclosure 4, Sample Award Certificates. Enclosure 5, Procedures for Submitting Awards via the HQMC Awards Processing System. The order is enclosure-based and has no chapters. The order text names the HQMC APS at awards.manpower.usmc.mil, iAPS terminology arrived later through MARADMIN 665/17.

Operative content

• Recommendations originate with the reporting senior or another officer and route on the HQMC Awards Processing System, iAPS per MARADMIN 665/17, at awards.manpower.usmc.mil. Every award forwards to CMC (MMMA).
• Awarding authorities establish an awards board, appointed in writing, applying stringent controls and strict criteria.
• Timing. Recommendations should reach the approving authority 60 days before desired presentation, 90 days for SECNAV-level awards. Valor packages take priority in routing.
• Unit awards. The unit commander originates, and all Navy Unit Commendations and Presidential Unit Citations route to SECNAV through the Navy Department Board of Decorations and Medals via CMC (MMMA).
• Verification. Commands verify awards at their level with certified record pages, only CMC (MMMA) verifies awards in question.
• Foreign awards. The Marine requests acceptance and retention through CMC (MMMA) with the citation, a translation, and a photograph. The 5th and 6th Marine Regiments hold the French Fourragere authorization.
• The awards office designation MMMA is historical. The function continues under MMPB-3, older documents keep the old letters.

Connection to higher policy

• SECNAVINST 1650.1J. The Department of the Navy military awards policy this order implements.
• SECNAV M-1650.1. The Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual carrying award-by-award criteria.

Connection to Marine Corps doctrine and lower policy

• MCO P1070.12 IRAM. Award entries post to the record, citations and certificates file to the OMPF.
• MARADMIN 665/17 and MARADMIN 104/06. iAPS terminology and Letter of Appreciation issue authority amendments.
• MARADMIN 015/20. OMPF document submission requirements for award records.
• NAVMC 11533. The Combat Action Ribbon nomination form.

Status

Active. Signed 2001-02-05, supersedes MCO 1650.19H. CH 1 published 2012-10-15 as an administrative update aligning the SECNAVINST reference to 1650.1J. Applies to the Marine Corps Reserve, reserve commands forward through the chain to CMC (MMMA). The J revision has held for two decades, confirm the version letter against the current series before citing.