Today Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England presented two categories of distinguished civilian awards, the 51^st annual DoD Distinguished Civilian Service Awards and the 2^nd annual DoD David O. Cooke Excellence in Public Administration Award. The Pentagon ceremony was hosted by the Director, Administration and Management, Michael B. Donley.

The DoD David O. Cooke Excellence in Public Administration Award recognizes a DoD employee with from three to ten years of federal service and occupies a non-managerial DoD position who exhibits great potential as a federal executive. This employee must emulate Cooke's dedication to service and spirit of cooperation and improvement in the department. The recipient of this year's award was Lorena Castro, project engineer, Program Executive Office (Ships), Department of the Navy. Castro was responsible for the development of the acquisition and contracting strategy for procuring three research ships for the National Science Foundation.

The DoD Distinguished Civilian Service Award is the highest DoD-level award that a career civil servant can earn. It recognizes career employees for exceptional contributions to the DoD. The following received this award:

Gus Guissanie, deputy director, Information Assurance, OSD/Networks and Information Integration/Chief Information Officer; Thomas Harvey, principal director, Stability Operations, OSD/Policy; Gail McGinn, deputy under secretary of defense for Plans, OSD/Personnel and Readiness; Maurice M. Mizrahi, operations research analyst, OSD/Program Analysis and Evaluation; Victor Ferlise, deputy to the commanding general for operations and support, Department of the Army; Charles Gallaher, director, Joint Warfare Applications Department, Department of the Navy; Bhakta Rath, associate director of research, Naval Research Laboratory, Department of the Navy; Lawrence Fielding, technical director, Aeronautical Systems Center, Department of the Air Force.