AR 600-8-22: Approval Authority, Deadlines, and V/C/R Devices

Army Regulation 600-8-22 is the Department of the Army’s governing policy for military awards, decorations, and honors. It sets the eligibility criteria, approval authorities, deadlines, and administrative procedures for everything from the Medal of Honor to the Army Achievement Medal, and it reaches active duty soldiers, the Army National Guard, the U.S. Army Reserve, retired personnel, foreign military members, and Department of Defense civilians.¹ The current edition is dated 19 January 2024 and took effect 19 February 2024, superseding the 5 March 2019 version.²

The Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1 is the policy proponent. The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs oversees awards authorities other than the Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross, and U.S. Army Human Resources Command runs the central processing operation through its Awards and Decorations Branch. That branch holds delegated decision authority for the Purple Heart, Army Good Conduct Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, and combat and specialty badges.²

Who Approves Which Award

Approval authority scales with the significance of the decoration. At the lower end, lieutenant colonels can approve the Army Achievement Medal and colonels can approve the Army Commendation Medal during peacetime.³ Higher awards require correspondingly higher-level approval, and the most significant decorations are reserved for the Secretary of the Army or Congress. The regulation contains detailed tables covering peacetime and wartime delegation, with separate provisions for project and program managers.

Commanders can convene an Award and Decoration Board to recommend the right level of recognition, but those boards are advisory. The final call belongs to the designated approval authority, and the regulation treats the choice of which decoration fits a given action as a judgment call guided by the individual’s responsibility, manner of performance, and impact on unit readiness.¹

Unit awards work on a parallel track. The Presidential Unit Citation cannot be delegated below its stated authority; the Valorous Unit Award and Meritorious Unit Commendation may be delegated by the Secretary of the Army, and the Army Unit Decorations Board at HRC advises on them.³ Recommendations use DA Form 7594.

Submission Deadlines

The general rule is two years. A recommendation must be entered into military channels within two years of the act, achievement, or service being recognized, and it counts as submitted once the initiating officer signs it and a higher official in the chain endorses it.²

Several exceptions matter:

The Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, and Distinguished Service Medal must be entered into channels within three years of the act and awarded within five.²
Entitlement-based awards are exempt from the two-year window. The Purple Heart, campaign and expeditionary medals, and badges qualify because eligibility turns on meeting specific criteria rather than a subjective recommendation.³
If a soldier was a prisoner of war, missing in action, or medically incapacitated in a way that prevented formal submission, the Silver Star or lesser decorations can be approved without regard to elapsed time.²
Under 10 USC 1130, a Member of Congress may ask the Secretary of the Army to consider or reconsider an award that has fallen outside the normal window. This is the route most often used for older actions that were never properly written up.³
The two-year limit does not apply to acceptance and wear of foreign decorations, which the Chief of the Awards and Decorations Branch at HRC approves.²

Once an approval is made, the decoration must be processed and recorded in military orders within 60 days, and recommendations should reach HRC at least 60 days before the intended presentation date. If a higher award is under review and a delay is likely, commanders are encouraged to use an interim award so the soldier is recognized promptly.¹

V, C, and R Devices

Three devices distinguish the circumstances under which an award was earned. The “V” device denotes valor. The “C” device denotes meritorious service or achievement performed under combat conditions, meaning the individual was personally exposed to hostile action or a significant risk of it. The “R” device recognizes direct, hands-on employment of a weapons system or warfighting activity that had an immediate impact on combat operations but was performed remotely, without physical combat risk.⁴

The line between “C” and “R” is physical presence. The “R” device cannot be used for sustained meritorious service such as end-of-tour or retirement awards, and routine headquarters support or rear-detachment operations do not qualify. Only one device may be authorized for the same event or action.³

Combat Badges Require Actual Combat

Combat badge eligibility is stricter than presence in a theater. The Combat Infantryman Badge requires that the soldier hold an infantry or Special Forces military occupational specialty, be assigned to an eligible unit of brigade size or smaller that is engaged in active ground combat, and personally participate in that ground combat while under hostile fire. Being present in a combat zone or receiving campaign credit alone does not qualify.⁵

Reconsideration and Appeals

A request to reconsider a disapproved, downgraded, or previously approved award must be submitted within one year of the awarding authority’s decision. It must contain new, substantive, and material information, take the form of a letter no more than two single-spaced pages, and travel through the same channels as the original recommendation. Only the original recommender or someone in the approving chain of command may initiate it.²

A single reconsideration by the approval authority is conclusive. After that, the only remaining route is the Army Board for Correction of Military Records, accessed through DD Form 149. One important limit: an award already approved and presented for meritorious service will not be considered for an upgrade to a valor award.²

When a reconsideration produces a higher award, any previously presented lesser or interim decoration must be revoked. If the higher award is posthumous, the primary next of kin may keep both the interim and the higher decoration.²

What the 2024 Revision Changed

The 2024 edition mandated the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army as the platform for processing all military awards, replacing earlier workflows and standardizing how awards are documented in personnel records.² It added the Expert Soldier Badge, the Master Gunner Identification Badge, the National Guard Bureau Identification Badge, and the Inspector General Identification Badge, and rescinded several obsolete badges including the Glider Badge, the Nuclear Reactor Operator badges, and the Physical Fitness Badge. The Atomic Veterans Commemorative Service Medal and Certificate were added, along with new valor award notification requirements.

The 2024 revision also implemented Section 370 of the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act, setting policy for revoking and disposing of streamers, awards, flags, and guidons associated with Confederate military service.² Waiver procedures changed so that soldiers flagged for Army Combat Fitness Test failures under HQDA-initiated flags became eligible for waiver approval for retirement or length-of-service awards, with the waiver processed as a separate action before the award recommendation is submitted. Soldiers flagged for body composition or fitness test failures remain eligible for posthumous awards if they died from injuries sustained while assigned to a unit engaged in combat.

Updates Since Publication

The Army has continued issuing policy updates through MILPER messages after the 2024 edition took effect, including messages in June 2025 and April 2026 announcing further changes to AR 600-8-22, the establishment of a Mexican Border Defense Medal in October 2025, and adjustments to aviation badge criteria and campaign medal eligibility.⁶ Before relying on the printed regulation for a current recommendation, check the latest MILPER messages for anything that has changed.

1
Military Times. AR 600-8-22, Military Awards
2
Rhode Island National Guard. AR 600-8-22, Military Awards (2024)
3
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Awards and Decorations
4
Department of Defense. DoDM 1348.33, Volume 4
5
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Combat Infantryman Badge
6
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. MILPER Messages