DAEGU GARRISON, Republic of Korea - (Sept. 14, 2009) Installation Management Command (IMCOM) announced Saturday that U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Daegu has been chosen as a finalist for the FY 2010 Army Communities of Excellence (ACOE) Medal Award.

The ACOE award honors the top Army, National Guard, and Reserve installations that have achieved levels of excellence in building a high quality environment, outstanding facilities and superior services, based on standards set annually by the National Malcolm Baldridge Quality Program Criteria for Performance Excellence, published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

This marks the second consecutive year that USAG Daegu has been chosen as a finalist. The Garrison went on to win a Bronze ACOE Award for 2009, which was presented to garrison leaders in a ceremony at the Pentagon May 5.

"This is a true indication of the intense hard work the entire Garrison puts into making Daegu a Community of Excellence," said USAG Daegu Commander Col. Terry Hodges. "The mere fact of being chosen as one of the eight finalists, of almost 200 garrisons in the Army, means that USAG Daegu is a community of choice for Soldiers, Civilians and family members, not only in Korea, but worldwide."

USAG Daegu joins USAG Yongsan as finalists from the IMCOM Korea region. Each will be visited by an IMCOM team sometime between now and the end of November as the next part of the ACOE award selection process. The team will conduct interviews to verify organizational strengths and clarify opportunities for improvement against the 2009-2010 Baldridge criteria for performance excellence.

The USAG Daegu team of nearly 11,000 Service Members, Civilians, contractors, Korean National (KN) employees and Family Members work and live on Camp Walker, Camp Henry and Camp George in Daegu, Camp Carroll in Waegwan, and Camp Hialeah, Pier 8 and the Busan Storage Facility in Busan.