State of the SFMC March 2015

Greetings Marines,
Its been a while since I was able to talk to you all in this form. My email problems have, thankfully, finally been resolved. I’m seriously hoping nothing like this takes place again.
First off, I want to mention that the Commandant’s Campaign Awards for the 2014 calendar year have been delayed somewhat due to the email problems I was experiencing. I hope to have that list finalized and the awards issued soon.
Second, I’m creating a post in the Commandant’s office to assist marines in solving problems specific to members outside of the United States.
This Special Assistant post will be responsible for receiving these issues from marines, doing the research to find out what can be done to resolve them, and getting proposals ready and in the pipeline for approval and implementation. Some things we just can’t do. Some things we can. Until we know the details its hard to determine which is which.

Persons interested in applying to serve in this post must meet the following standard requirements:
All members of the staff of the Office of the Commandant must be at least 18 years of age
be identified in the STARFLEET database as Marines (either Reserve or
Active)
completed the following courses: OTS (OCC is recommended); PD-100 and
PD-201
an Officer rank is specifically NOT required.
Specific circumstances of this post add the following requirements for successful applicants:
Email service that is checked, at a minimum, daily
be a member of a Brigade outside of the contiguous United States
be a resident outside of the contiguous United States
I will be accepting applications from those interested in this post until Midnight (Central Daylight Time) on 27 APRIL, 2015 and expect to announce an appointment to the post shortly thereafter.
Summit season is upon us again. Marines are reminded that, according to the current MFM,  although only certain persons can actually authorize each of these awards, they can be nominated by anyone in the Chain of Command . Nominations for all level of awards may come from any source.

If you are, or know, a marine deserving of recognition you should nominate. There have been some issues with the online nomination forms on the SFMC site. Those issues are being investigated for repair. In the meantime, if you have difficulty using the online form, your Brigade OIC has text version os the forms that can be used and sent to the appropriate issuing authority. Be as detailed as possible when telling what action is deserving of recognition. It really helps out if all the information required is included in the first attempt at nominating.
Finally, and still on the subject of Summits. If you wish to have me or any member of the GS speak at your Brigade Muster, contact us and we’ll do what we can to set it up. In many cases, we won’t be able to be there in person, but we are happy to make ourselves available to speak remotely if at all possible.
That’s all I have for right now. Talk to you again soon.
Mike
—
Michael McGowan
GEN, SFMC
OIC, 225th MSG
papabear@ussbortas.net
dant@sfi-sfmc.org