The public ceremony that was originally scheduled for November 12th in the Hall of Heroes was cancelled due to safety concerns brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department of Defense acknowledges and celebrates the eleven honorees selected by their respective components to receive two of the highest awards that a DoD career civilian can receive.
The 16th Annual David O. Cooke Excellence in Public Administration Award is presented to a career DoD employee who serves in a non-managerial capacity. The recipient reflects exceptional devotion to duty and impact to efficiency, economy, or other improvements to the Department’s operations that are of a significantly broad scope.
The 65th Annual Distinguished Civilian Service Award (DCSA) is presented to career DoD employees. The nominee’s contributions must reflect exceptional devotion to duty and contributes to efficiency, economy, or other improvements to the Department’s operations that are beyond the scope of their component and in a significant impact to the DoD.
This year’s honorees are: Ms. Kathryn L. DeBenedetto, nominated by the Department of the Army as the 16th recipient of the David O. Cooke Excellence in Public Administration Award. The following are the ten recipients of the Distinguished Civilian Service Award: Mr. Jose L. Cruz, nominated by the Department of the Navy; Ms. Sammi S. Foong, nominated by the Department of the Army; Mr. Robert D. Helgeson, nominated by the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Mr. Randall M. Johnson, nominated by the Department of the Army; Ms. Denise G. Kanelos, nominated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense; Mr. John E. Kreul, nominated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense; Ms. Kay A. Myers, nominated by the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Mr. Donald E. Perkins, Jr., nominated by the Department of the Air Force; Mr. Marc J. Pitarys, nominated by the Department of the Air Force; Mr. Mark O. Shields, nominated by the Department of the Air Force.
The recipients of this year’s awards have accomplished levels of excellence involving: Improved asset management; Created performance and financial savings; Expanded recruitment and training while delivering financial savings exceeding goals; Enhanced IT processes and operations enabling reporting capability to DoD and Congressional leadership; Developed logistics and engineering processes that ensured $6.4 billion in spending to the warfighter; Provided safety guidance that directly saved soldier’s lives and mission success; Developed initiatives that led to success in multiple audits; Supplied insights into the creation of risk a control management policy; Provided guidance in the development strategic issues effecting the defense mission in various regions of the world; Created cyber security innovations leading to the safety of America’s elections, effective cyber information-sharing, and improved partnerships within the Federal government; Directed combat assessment planning for a $10 million joint exercise; Supervised command and control for multiple active-duty squadrons, reserve units, and National Guard units ensuring timely reporting on thousands of targets; Guided requirements of over a thousand contracts and modifications totaling over $13.9 billion in multi-year savings; Delivered $8 billion in combat capability, and $2 billion in capability two years early; Optimized the communications plan for a combat unit during overseas operations; Directed the upgrade to $3 million modifications for an advanced defense mission.
| Date Taken: | 11.13.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 11.13.2020 14:37 |
| Story ID: | 382990 |
| Location: | PENTAGON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,085 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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