Individual Award Nominations Sought

NGAUS is seeking nominations for the association’s 2026 NGAUS Individual Awards Program.

The program timeline is shifting to earlier in the year in 2026 to make it easier for honorees to receive their awards at the annual association conference, which is typically in late summer.

In the past, recipients and their state or territory Guard association had less than a month to arrange conference attendance.

Feb. 15 will be the new deadline for nominations. The association board will consider awards at its March meeting. Recipients will be announced by April 1.

As always, nominees should have demonstrated superior performance, committed acts of heroism or contributed significantly to National Guard effectiveness. Recent honorees have included elected officials, senior military leaders and Guard Soldiers and Airmen.

There are 12 separate individual awards. Program details have been provided to every state and territory joint force headquarters and Guard associations. This information is also available at www.ngaus.org/awards.

Most nominees will need the endorsement of their adjutant general. The exception is nominations directly from state and territory associations.

A five-person awards committee will review the nominations in early March and make recommendations to the NGAUS board.

The association would like to present most of the awards during the 148th General Conference & Exhibition, Aug. 28-31 in Indianapolis.

Last year, 32 states and territories nominated individuals for association awards. The NGAUS board approved 100 recipients, the highest total since 2008, and 61 accepted their awards in person at the 147th General Conference & Exhibition in Milwaukee.

Nominations for the Army Guard and Air Guard unit awards presented at the conference must be submitted through the National Guard Bureau. Unit awards have different submission procedures and deadlines.