That's what happened to Will, for the same acts of bravery etc... I have to assume it was granted by his CO, upon his return, & since Tom didn't return, said officer was/is in no position to now do so. I'd have to suspect he could've taken the matter before Starfleet & rather convincingly petitioned for the same recognition, having done/been the same as Will, up to that point, & probably would've gotten it.
Or having no CO now, what he maybe ought to have done (since Will was already treating him as a direct subordinate anyhow) was accept a temporary posting from Picard as attached to the Enterprise, for the completion of the current Nervala IV mission, for which he continued to contribute
Then, Picard would've been in a position to promote him for all he'd done, in both the evacuation mission 8 years earlier, and the efforts he'd put in over those 8 years, to keep the outpost functional, such that the Enterprise crew could retrieve its data (the reason they came there) only through his actions & sacrifice was either mission completed
Then, if he didn't want to serve under Will, he could move on thereafter... but yeah, a glaring oversight, to send him off with nothing to show for any of it
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