Titan defender earns AF level annual award

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman John Nieves Camacho
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

A Titan assigned to the 39th Security Forces Squadron was recently named the 2016 Air Force Security Forces Staff non-commissioned officer of the year.

Tech. Sgt. Christopher Giles, 39th SFS antiterrorism force protection intelligence and investigations section chief, was selected as the award recipient for his contributions over the past year to the Incirlik mission.

“Tech. Sgt. Giles is one of those NCOs that every leader hopes for,” said Lt. Col. William Smith, 39th SFS commander. “You can give him a task with very little direction on how to complete it, and he'll wow you with the result.  It was a difficult year for the 39th Air Base Wing, but what he and his team were able to achieve in that time is phenomenal and I'm not at all surprised that the career field recognized him for his accomplishments. We're all proud of how he represented the Security Forces family!”

While humbled to earn this pedigree, Giles, who was also selected as the 2013 Air Mobility Command Outstanding Support Staff NCO of the year, said he doesn’t view his selection as winning an award.

“I look at this as, I have a really strong team, and we’ve done excellent work over the last year,” said Giles. “My leadership took an opportunity to recognize the hard work that our team is doing and I was fortunate to receive this honor.”

Since his arrival to Incirlik Air Base, Giles and his team were responsible for gathering intelligence, finding out enemy plans and capabilities, and identifying potential vulnerabilities the base may have and mitigating them.

“I’ve never seen a group in a staff position work so much,” said Giles. “I don’t think one of my guys has logged less than 60 hours a week ever since we started working back here. It’s what they’ve done the last year and a half; they’ve put the mission first over their personal lives and desires and have gave 100 percent.”

Several accomplishments that led to Giles’ selection for the annual award included managing USAFE’s largest antiterrorism program here and for five geographically separated units over 300 thousand square miles and directing more than 100 intel fusion cells.

Giles reflected on his team’s efforts and related them to what he heard the fifth Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Robert Gaylor say.

“Chief Gaylor said ‘Service before self is saying anything, anytime, anyplace,’” recalled Giles. “‘Anything that the Air Force asks for, anytime that they ask for it and at any place that they ask me to do it.’ And that’s what our team has done over the last year. They always had that attitude: anything, anytime, anyplace.”