Marine administrative message 402/15
solicits nominations for the inaugural Jerry Coleman award, presented by the
Bob Feller Act of Valor Foundation.
Nominees must be Marine staff noncommissioned
officers, active or reserve, and must be outstanding military professionals and
leaders in their communities.
The awardee will be recognized
alongside the recipient of the Bob Feller Act of Valor award in a ceremony at
the Navy Memorial in the District of Columbia on Nov. 4, 2015.
Jerry Coleman, for whom the
award is named, postponed his baseball career to serve his nation. At the age
of 18, he joined the Marine Corps as a Naval Aviation cadet. In World War II, Coleman flew 57 combat
missions, and in the Korean War, he flew 63 close air support and interdiction
strike missions making him the only major league player to see combat in two
wars. Coleman retired from the Marine Corps as a lieutenant colonel. In 2004, he was inducted into the Marine
Corps Sports Hall of Fame. He was also
selected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005 as the Ford C. Frick
Award recipient as an announcer.
The Jerry Coleman award will
recognize a Marine Staff NCO who possesses outstanding leadership both on duty and
in the civilian community and unyielding support for the Marine Corps and the
United States of America.
Nominations must be submitted
to the Office of U.S. Marine Corps Communications, Public Affairs Division,
Community Relations Branch, at hqmc.comrel@usmc.mil. Nominations must be
received by Sept. 1, 2015.The COMREL branch will consolidate all nominations,
organize a ranking board and provide a summary to the Bob Feller Act of Valor
Foundation. The Bob Feller Act of Valor
Foundation will select the winner.
For more information see
MARADMIN 402/15.