MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- II Marine Expeditionary Force Commanding General Lt. Gen. James F. Amos presented the 2005 Lt. Gen. “Chesty” Puller Awards at II MEF Headquarters, May 10.
This inaugural award presentation was created to highlight II MEF units for sustained superior performance in leadership.
As a part of II MEF’s Force Preservation Plan, the commanding general was looking for an answer to the question, “How do you recognize excellence?” From that, was birthed the idea of the Puller Awards.
“This is not a safety award,” said Amos. “However, units who set superior unit standards and distinguish themselves in key leadership areas such as learning and mentorship, family readiness and innovative training, an increase in personnel safety will naturally fall into place.”
Small Unit category was awarded to Company B, 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, with special recognition given to Interim Marine Corps Security Force Company Bahrain, Marine Corps Security Force Battalion, 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Anti-Terrorism), and Marine Tactical Air Command Squadron 28, Marine Air Control Group 28, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
Though currently deployed to Iraq, Bravo Company took part in the ceremony, receiving their award via video teleconference from Iraq.
Winner in the Medium Unit category was 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, with special recognition given to Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF), 4th MEB (AT) and Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron (MALS) 26, Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) 26, 2nd MAW.
The Large Unit award went to MALS-14 of 2nd MAW’s MAG-14, with special recognition given to 2nd MarDiv’s, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment and 2nd Maintenance Battalion, 2nd Force Service Support Group.
Following the official presentation of certificates, Amos went to three category-winning units and presented the trophy in an informal setting, allowing him to congratulate the individual Marines for their accomplishment.
“We’re going to do this in another six months,” said Amos. “Yes, this is a competition, but the individual units can only benefit by setting the highest leadership standards.”