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The period to nominate someone for the 2025 NGAUS Individual Awards Program is underway.
The association is seeking to recognize outstanding National Guardsmen and individuals and organizations outside of the Guard that have made significant efforts to help advance NGAUS and its mission.
NGAUS presents 12 separate individual awards each year, with past honorees including senior military leaders, elected officials and Soldiers and Airmen from the Guard.
May 15 is the cutoff for this year’s nominations.
NGAUS provided guidance about the program to every state and territory’s Guard association and joint force headquarters in January.
More information about the association’s awards is available at www.ngaus.org/awards, and questions about the program can be directed to Rich Arnold, the association’s production manager, at [email protected].
A five-person awards committee will review this year’s nominations in June and then make its recommendations to the NGAUS board of directors.
The board will then give its final approval to the nominees in July before announcing the 2025 individual award recipients later in the same month.
NGAUS will present the awards to the recipients during the 147th General Conference & Exhibition, Aug. 22 to Aug. 25 in Milwaukee.
Twenty-eight states and territories submitted nominations for the 2024 NGAUS individual awards.
NGAUS had 93 award recipients in 2024, the association’s highest total since 2008.
A record number of recipients — 54 — accepted their awards in person at the 146th General Conference & Exhibition in Detroit last August.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and retired Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson, the 29th chief of the National Guard Bureau, headlined last year’s list of NGAUS individual award recipients.
The pair received the Harry S. Truman award — the association’s highest honor — a recognition of civilian or military leaders who have made sustained contributions of exceptional and far-reaching magnitude to the defense and security of the United States in a manner worthy of national recognition.
Whitmer received her award in person in Detroit, where she was recognized for “fighting for service member benefits while ensuring the Guard has modern equipment and facilities to prepare for future conflicts.”
Hokanson — who led NGB from 2020 to 2024 — was selected for his leadership of the bureau during major events including the COVID-19 pandemic, the civil unrest in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, and the withdrawal of the nation’s military from Afghanistan.
The nominations for Army Guard and Air Guard unit awards that are presented at the NGAUS conference each year must be submitted through NGB.
These awards have different submission procedures and deadlines than the association’s individual awards.
— By Mark Hensch
