The table for award codes in Direct Access has been updated with codes meant only for PHS officers. The U.S. Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps Force recently adopted Coast Guard Direct Access as their HR management information system. The PeopleSoft program does a good job of handling the segregation between the two components; Coast Guard DA users do not have access to records for PHS officers, other than what existed for PHS officers detailed to the Coast Guard and PHS users do not have access to Coast Guard member/employee data. However, there are some common areas of the system where non-personal data has not been masked or hidden; the Honor/Award code table is one such area.
The Honor/Award code table now includes codes meant only for PHS Officers. Regrettably, the codes were added using the prefix of "CG", just like the existing codes meant for Coast Guard members.
The PHS codes can be identified because they include numbers (CG175 - Commendation Medal, CG195 - Achievement Medal, etc.), while all codes meant for assignment to Coast Guard personnel are made up only of letters (CGFC - Coast Guard Commendation Medal, CGHC - CG Achievement Medal, etc.). Many of the PHS codes do not have enough information in the description field to distinguish them from codes, with similar descriptions, meant for CG personnel. This has lead to many members being assigned an incorrect code. For example, searching for "Good Conduct" will return code "CG3525 - Good Conduct Medal" but the correct code/description for a Coast Guard member is "CGSD - CG Good Conduct Medal".
The appropriate offices in PPC and CG-634 have been made aware of the problem with the Honor/Award code table and work is underway to identify records for correction. A listing of "bad codes" is available at http://www.uscg.mil/ppc/adv/badcodes.pdf. These codes, which are all alphanumeric and meant only for assignment to PHS officers, must not be assigned to Coast Guard personnel.
Examples:
Do not use CG175 - Commendation Medal.
Do use CGFC - Coast Guard Commendation Medal.
Do not use CG195 - Achievement Medal.
Do use CGHC - CG Achievement Medal.
Do not use CG3525 - Good Conduct Medal.
Do use CGSD - CG Good Conduct Medal.