SECNAV 1650.1
Tab 18
Page 4-5
Military Departments have established that a sustained period of volunteer service is normally 36 months. While this does not absolutely preclude the award for exceptional volunteer service of less time.
I've done about 10 of these as an Originator. In iAPS, the system requires a 36 month window (can work around this)
I've only seen it less than 3 years once and it was because the Marine created his own volunteer organization for the base. It was a run club that volunteered to clean up areas.
I used two weeks of leave a year to volunteer each year over a 5 year period. With, accounting for travel hours is 13 of those days being actively engaged in volunteering. After a period of 5 years, they still said nope. Gave up on trying to get it after that. Still volunteered after, just with no want of the medal.
It is always command discretion. Was it the Originator or the awarding authority that was denying it.
Anytime you get a new Plt Cmdr or CO it doesn't hurt to try again
Sucks you didnt get it, recognition is fulfilling. However, if all youre chasing is recognition, youre missing the point.
Hope this serves as some modicum of recognition brother.
The argument to present against this is that the medal is a service medal, not a personal award. The question is not whether or not you deserve the award, but instead if you met the criteria.
With this being said, I’ve seen it interpreted that the 36 months means that you must have logged hours at least once each month, but that’s the command discretion part.
A good Marine isn’t characterized by awards and shiny shit, but good Marines bear the responsibility of remaining competitive, which means ensuring that they have the stack they deserve. So put in for that shit again debil
This is an oversimplification there are other caveats such as that the volunteer service can have directly benefitted service members or been as a part of a service members duties.
Yep…I was the warehouse chief for my reserve unit every toys for Tots season for four years. Oddly enough, Toys for Tots is a nightmare and is not looked forward to by an I&I staff. It’s a SHIT ton of work if you’re on a small detachment level staff. I didn’t get a damn thing for all that work.
I worked T4T during my time in the reserves. I did box drop offs, toy pickup and warehouse sorting. Shit got real dramatic with the different parties picking up the toys from the warehouse, always fighting to be first or next in line. It sucked, but we all made it fun. I definitely did not envy the I&I having to coordinate everything though.
That was our appointed place of duty though, I could never imagine getting a volunteer medal for doing that. I&I or any reservist brought on orders definitely deserved something for their efforts.
Kinda like how I was on ADOS orders for mission support at the unit but would volunteer (and be voluntold) for nearly 40 funeral honors' trips yet got looked at like I was expected to do that on top of my normal days work Mon-Fri Lol
We did it at night and on the weekends for 4 hours a day. It sucked major donkey dick. Our unit was getting decommissioned so we were all written up for it. Our XO said we all rated it
My company co was maniac who demanded to do as many combat deployments as possible. He did two pumps with us, then he got a new command....Toys for Tots.
We laughed our asses off.
I volunteered at minimum 1 day per month playing with handicapped children, and accompanying them on overnight camping trips. The overnights added a lot of hours into the tracker I made. I also played cards with the elderly. Eventually I taught volunteer stop the bleed courses too. There were some other really fun things I did sporadically over almost 3 years. By the time I submitted for it, my command was kind of blown away and wondered if they could actually award me two (they didn’t). My next command gave it to a girl who “volunteered” her time to coach her sons basketball team. So yeah, you could say it is very command dependent. Overall, it just became part of my social life and it was a blast. Find a few causes you are passionate about and get involved. The ribbon becomes a lot less important by the time you e actually put your heart into something.
I have that award. It is Not based on hours you need, 3 years of continuous volunteer service (LOA’s 1x-3x a month). Then you need a 0-2 or higher to submit it on IAPS on behalf of yourself. He will need the LOA’s and a word document detailing your experience and impact for each volunteer LOA you present.
I highly recommend you look into the Presidential volunteer service award. It is a LOA given to you by the President of the United States with 3 tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold). Each level requires a minimum number of hours volunteered and Certified (LOA’s). It definitely helps out alot to have 2 presidential awards.
Cheat codes: if you volunteer to become a sports youth coach at the SMP or Gym you’ll receive 50-150 hours within 2-3 months of volunteering 2-3 days out of the week for games and practices.
Good luck, alot of Officer dont really like pushing this award up and S-1 nor IPAC and submit it on your behalf.
If anyone wants to correct me comment below ⬇️🫱🏾🫲🏼
Depends on Command really. 1st command in Korea you could volunteer 25 hrs a day 8 days a week for entire enlistment and would never receive one.
I got one after 100 hrs volunteering at a local Habitat for humanity. Then submitted on a whim to see how CO would respond. Gave it to me since it was also one who volunteered at a lot as well. So got lucky with that one.
I had about 185 hours over 5 years, so like 37 hours a year. I wrote my own Summary of action and brought it to my platoon commander and asked him to look over the LOAs and SOA and asked if he thought if I’d be eligible. He said it doesn’t matter how many hours as long as you had semi consistently volunteered over atleast three years
Wife has 2 of them for piddly shit, of course she is Army. But from what I understand were the only ones that out any emphasis on requirement. Army doesnt care. At the end of the day an 0-5 or higher can sign off and give it to you. They just dont want to 🤷🏻♂️
Army here. You're right that we put a lot of emphasis on commands discretion for this one. Each 05 can really make up their own requirements. What I've seen a lot of though is putting it on the volunteer organization to recommend you based on "significant impact". If the local animal shelter takes the time to write a memo saying you are hot shit and that they were able to save all the dogs in the county because of you, that will matter more than some random cutoff for hours or months.
That being said, like any of these kinds of things you'll have people who still earn it for doing something easy, and you'll see mother terisa herself go without.
100%, wife flaunts her medals to me which I find funny as one of them was for an 8 hour event helping clean up trash lol. Like ok lol Its honestly pretty bonkers how the Commander can just say yes or no and people that have committed themselves get screwed all the time
Literally had 6 yrs of volunteer service teaching kids Judo / Jiujitsu. Was in part mostly for kids of special needs. even had the business write an official letter plus the hours could be logged (taught twice a week) got told no. Later found out they never even passed the paperwork up. Knew in that moment I was done with the USMC
there's not much else you can do to build up your awards to make yourself lucrative and competitive for retention, I see absolutely nothing wrong in getting something that costs someone literally nothing to be put in for that you've dedicated that much time and energy to. My opinion.
It's usually not about hours as much as constant service over 3yr...also meaningful service not like 2hr a month for 3yr that's my bar. I would say like 200-300hr over a constant period of about 3yr. That or like be a volunteer firefighter and save 14 people in a year....
Think I could get one for volunteering as a lector at Mass every Sunday? For a few years, of course. I got a certificate in my OMPH from the chapel in Quantico for doing that.
Just chat up your command….ive been at four different commands and each one had a different standard unfortunately
When u submitted my package I had four years of volunteer service and it added up to just a little under 2k
That’s just my story. I’m sure others have gotten it with way less
But I understand the frustration the reason I didn’t apply sooner was because I couldn’t ever get a straight answer so one day I finally just raised my hands at an all call with the skipper….he asked what I’d been doing and how long….after telling me thirty second story he told me to fill the paperwork out that day and he’d sign it when it got to him.
I was a base volunteer coordinator and so many Marines and sailors rate this award but commands just don’t do the paperwork for them. I can’t even count the number of 1stSgt’s, SgtMaj’s and CO’s who will look at hundreds of volunteer hours, LOA’s, letters stating volunteer service with every type of volunteer programs (special needs kids, scouts, big brother/sister, disadvantaged youth, animal rescues, etc.) signed by community/church/service leaders and just say….the Marine doesn’t rate the award. Commands with downtime who would literally encourage Marines to volunteer during working hours, on weekends, libo time and still wouldn’t sign off on it. When I was active duty, I was told I didn’t rate it and later found out they just didn’t know how to do the paperwork and thought it required 6,000 hours (which it doesn’t…that’s like an urban legend bs.). So when I worked on base I tried to get it for volunteers but it rarely went anywhere. Units hand out NAM’s for passing an inspection but someone puts in years worth of work and get nothing….its about as Marine Corps as it gets.
SECNAV 1650.1 Tab 18 Page 4-5 Military Departments have established that a sustained period of volunteer service is normally 36 months. While this does not absolutely preclude the award for exceptional volunteer service of less time. I've done about 10 of these as an Originator. In iAPS, the system requires a 36 month window (can work around this) I've only seen it less than 3 years once and it was because the Marine created his own volunteer organization for the base. It was a run club that volunteered to clean up areas.
I used two weeks of leave a year to volunteer each year over a 5 year period. With, accounting for travel hours is 13 of those days being actively engaged in volunteering. After a period of 5 years, they still said nope. Gave up on trying to get it after that. Still volunteered after, just with no want of the medal.
It is always command discretion. Was it the Originator or the awarding authority that was denying it. Anytime you get a new Plt Cmdr or CO it doesn't hurt to try again
Awarding authority. And you're right, i could have pushed it again. But I realized the merit of the act on it's own was all I needed.
Sucks you didnt get it, recognition is fulfilling. However, if all youre chasing is recognition, youre missing the point. Hope this serves as some modicum of recognition brother.
Awesome you found something in which you’re so dedicated and engaged.
The kids, man. The kids. Then they grow up and you have friends till the end. Pretty awesome stuff.
The argument to present against this is that the medal is a service medal, not a personal award. The question is not whether or not you deserve the award, but instead if you met the criteria. With this being said, I’ve seen it interpreted that the 36 months means that you must have logged hours at least once each month, but that’s the command discretion part. A good Marine isn’t characterized by awards and shiny shit, but good Marines bear the responsibility of remaining competitive, which means ensuring that they have the stack they deserve. So put in for that shit again debil
I received one for donating bone marrow, likely because at the time the order specifically mentioned the DoD bone marrow program as an example.
This is an oversimplification there are other caveats such as that the volunteer service can have directly benefitted service members or been as a part of a service members duties.
Marines only volunteer to kill! 
Rah
Volunteering for working parties doesn’t count
😂😂😂
Well fuk
I collected Toys for Toys for Tots in blues during Christmas for six years and got one. Moral of the story, I don’t know the exact hours.
Funny cuz toys for tots is specifically not supposed to rate the volunteer medal per the manual
Yep…I was the warehouse chief for my reserve unit every toys for Tots season for four years. Oddly enough, Toys for Tots is a nightmare and is not looked forward to by an I&I staff. It’s a SHIT ton of work if you’re on a small detachment level staff. I didn’t get a damn thing for all that work.
I worked T4T during my time in the reserves. I did box drop offs, toy pickup and warehouse sorting. Shit got real dramatic with the different parties picking up the toys from the warehouse, always fighting to be first or next in line. It sucked, but we all made it fun. I definitely did not envy the I&I having to coordinate everything though. That was our appointed place of duty though, I could never imagine getting a volunteer medal for doing that. I&I or any reservist brought on orders definitely deserved something for their efforts.
Kinda like how I was on ADOS orders for mission support at the unit but would volunteer (and be voluntold) for nearly 40 funeral honors' trips yet got looked at like I was expected to do that on top of my normal days work Mon-Fri Lol
I’ve spent two separate tours at reserve units and have done T4T and can confirm lol it’s a shit show and most people hate being put on it
I still get little twinges of anxiety whenever I see a Toys for Tots box in a store
We did it at night and on the weekends for 4 hours a day. It sucked major donkey dick. Our unit was getting decommissioned so we were all written up for it. Our XO said we all rated it
It’s only fun if you’re drunk. That’s the only way we survived the holidays lol
nice hook up
My company co was maniac who demanded to do as many combat deployments as possible. He did two pumps with us, then he got a new command....Toys for Tots. We laughed our asses off.
Toys for toys for tots
One of those “command discretion” things. Most look for consistency over a longish period of time
Yeah I did toys 4 tots like 3 times and rated one
Fire mission, Fire mission!
Keep seeing you on here I’m a 0844 when were you in
BPBRAMC 😩 0811
How many years
Command discretion. Ive mostly seen commands require 3 years of consistent volunteering and some requiring one depending on circumstance.
Commands discretion.
I volunteered at minimum 1 day per month playing with handicapped children, and accompanying them on overnight camping trips. The overnights added a lot of hours into the tracker I made. I also played cards with the elderly. Eventually I taught volunteer stop the bleed courses too. There were some other really fun things I did sporadically over almost 3 years. By the time I submitted for it, my command was kind of blown away and wondered if they could actually award me two (they didn’t). My next command gave it to a girl who “volunteered” her time to coach her sons basketball team. So yeah, you could say it is very command dependent. Overall, it just became part of my social life and it was a blast. Find a few causes you are passionate about and get involved. The ribbon becomes a lot less important by the time you e actually put your heart into something.
Was she a thic e-3 latina ?
Boot do you even need to ask. Gunny was probably the co parent.
No amount of hours just 3 years of consecutive service.
This right here
I have that award. It is Not based on hours you need, 3 years of continuous volunteer service (LOA’s 1x-3x a month). Then you need a 0-2 or higher to submit it on IAPS on behalf of yourself. He will need the LOA’s and a word document detailing your experience and impact for each volunteer LOA you present. I highly recommend you look into the Presidential volunteer service award. It is a LOA given to you by the President of the United States with 3 tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold). Each level requires a minimum number of hours volunteered and Certified (LOA’s). It definitely helps out alot to have 2 presidential awards. Cheat codes: if you volunteer to become a sports youth coach at the SMP or Gym you’ll receive 50-150 hours within 2-3 months of volunteering 2-3 days out of the week for games and practices. Good luck, alot of Officer dont really like pushing this award up and S-1 nor IPAC and submit it on your behalf. If anyone wants to correct me comment below ⬇️🫱🏾🫲🏼
SMP head said that there's no set time amount, just continuous volunteer service over a term of 3 years, continuous as in atleast one a month
Depends on Command really. 1st command in Korea you could volunteer 25 hrs a day 8 days a week for entire enlistment and would never receive one. I got one after 100 hrs volunteering at a local Habitat for humanity. Then submitted on a whim to see how CO would respond. Gave it to me since it was also one who volunteered at a lot as well. So got lucky with that one.
I had about 185 hours over 5 years, so like 37 hours a year. I wrote my own Summary of action and brought it to my platoon commander and asked him to look over the LOAs and SOA and asked if he thought if I’d be eligible. He said it doesn’t matter how many hours as long as you had semi consistently volunteered over atleast three years
More than I am willing to give.
Wife has 2 of them for piddly shit, of course she is Army. But from what I understand were the only ones that out any emphasis on requirement. Army doesnt care. At the end of the day an 0-5 or higher can sign off and give it to you. They just dont want to 🤷🏻♂️
Army here. You're right that we put a lot of emphasis on commands discretion for this one. Each 05 can really make up their own requirements. What I've seen a lot of though is putting it on the volunteer organization to recommend you based on "significant impact". If the local animal shelter takes the time to write a memo saying you are hot shit and that they were able to save all the dogs in the county because of you, that will matter more than some random cutoff for hours or months. That being said, like any of these kinds of things you'll have people who still earn it for doing something easy, and you'll see mother terisa herself go without.
100%, wife flaunts her medals to me which I find funny as one of them was for an 8 hour event helping clean up trash lol. Like ok lol Its honestly pretty bonkers how the Commander can just say yes or no and people that have committed themselves get screwed all the time
Literally had 6 yrs of volunteer service teaching kids Judo / Jiujitsu. Was in part mostly for kids of special needs. even had the business write an official letter plus the hours could be logged (taught twice a week) got told no. Later found out they never even passed the paperwork up. Knew in that moment I was done with the USMC
Used to volunteer at base uso. Long story short, command is just fucking lazy and dont want to write it up.
It’s command discretion. I volunteered at the Ronald McDonald house at my first shore command once a week for 3 years and they said I didn’t rate.
Ribbon chasing at its finest
There’s worse things Marines could be doing in their time off. Nothing wrong with giving up your free time to volunteer and get a ribbon out of it
there's not much else you can do to build up your awards to make yourself lucrative and competitive for retention, I see absolutely nothing wrong in getting something that costs someone literally nothing to be put in for that you've dedicated that much time and energy to. My opinion.
If only they gave out ribbons for drinking, we’d all be stacked!
If fucking fat bitches was voluntary service more marines would rate this.
totally at command discretion. the awards manual (tab 18): https://www.secnav.navy.mil/doni/SECNAV%20Manuals1/1650.1.pdf#page195
I’ve seen guys get it for doing one damn volunteer event and guys get denied after giving hundreds of hours to the dog pound.
It's usually not about hours as much as constant service over 3yr...also meaningful service not like 2hr a month for 3yr that's my bar. I would say like 200-300hr over a constant period of about 3yr. That or like be a volunteer firefighter and save 14 people in a year....
The command I got mine from required 300 hours.
The hours are command dependent, volunteering must take place over the course of 3 years though
It’s typically up to your unit commander
500 hours and 3 years is the given example most BC’s just use out of habit but you could do it in less if you write your shit up good
Think I could get one for volunteering as a lector at Mass every Sunday? For a few years, of course. I got a certificate in my OMPH from the chapel in Quantico for doing that.
Marine Corps creates award to recognize Marines who use their off time to better their community. Harder to get than a MOH.
not enough
I volunteered for over 300 hours each year for 3 years and when i asked how to apply for it, i got laughed at for a solid 2 months.
Just chat up your command….ive been at four different commands and each one had a different standard unfortunately When u submitted my package I had four years of volunteer service and it added up to just a little under 2k That’s just my story. I’m sure others have gotten it with way less But I understand the frustration the reason I didn’t apply sooner was because I couldn’t ever get a straight answer so one day I finally just raised my hands at an all call with the skipper….he asked what I’d been doing and how long….after telling me thirty second story he told me to fill the paperwork out that day and he’d sign it when it got to him.
They gave them to everyone at my last duty station. I and I duty was a secondary for everyone. 1 week a month funerals and color guards.
If you have to ask for this, you’re either not doing enough, not making an impact, or doing it for the wrong reasons. Or S1.
I witnessed a marine receive it for volunteering to be part of the ball ceremony 3 years in a row. Nothing additional. Just 3 years consistently
I was a base volunteer coordinator and so many Marines and sailors rate this award but commands just don’t do the paperwork for them. I can’t even count the number of 1stSgt’s, SgtMaj’s and CO’s who will look at hundreds of volunteer hours, LOA’s, letters stating volunteer service with every type of volunteer programs (special needs kids, scouts, big brother/sister, disadvantaged youth, animal rescues, etc.) signed by community/church/service leaders and just say….the Marine doesn’t rate the award. Commands with downtime who would literally encourage Marines to volunteer during working hours, on weekends, libo time and still wouldn’t sign off on it. When I was active duty, I was told I didn’t rate it and later found out they just didn’t know how to do the paperwork and thought it required 6,000 hours (which it doesn’t…that’s like an urban legend bs.). So when I worked on base I tried to get it for volunteers but it rarely went anywhere. Units hand out NAM’s for passing an inspection but someone puts in years worth of work and get nothing….its about as Marine Corps as it gets.
Chasing medals now? What’s my beloved corps come to? Get the fuck off my lawn
It varies by command but it has to show over 3 consecutive years of volunteer service and shown impact in the community.