Four members of CS win USAFE awards

  • Published
  • By Lori Burling Alves
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Four members of the 39th Communications Squadron earned individual U.S. Air Forces in Europe communications and information awards for 2006.

"The awards are great for the squadron," said Maj. Michael Cote, 39th CS commander. "I know these individuals are superstars, but it's nice to know that USAFE sees them as superstars as well."

Staff Sgt. Jason Sharp, who is now deployed, won the noncommissioned officer award. Airman 1st Class Eric Kensel took home the same award in the Airman category. Senior Master Sgt. Ben Creger won in the senior NCO category, while Reginald Callaway earned a win as a civilian contributor.

"It's a great achievement," said Mr. Callaway, an Air Force retiree who was a key player in building Incirlik's online network, The Source. "My name will be on the plaque but it really is a team win. It takes a good team to allow me to win an award such as this."

The four winners agree that happenstance may have set them apart from other nominees in USAFE. Along with their daily job duties such as maintaining secure and non-secure communication networks for more than 3,500 users; within the last year, the squadron has lost members because of reshaping within their career field. Some job positions previously held here have now moved to USAFE headquarters at Ramstein Air Base, Germany -- thus shrinking Incirlik's support team.

"Where we used to have a team of five to help with networking problems, we now have one," said Major Cote. "These folks have helped with consistency and problem solving throughout this transition. They've really stepped it up--performing more than just their daily job duties."

Major Cote and his team credit Sergeant Creger's leadership skills in helping the squadron be successful during a time of constant change.

"Where chaos is--he (Sergeant Creger) brings sanity to it," said Mr. Callaway.

The squadron also played a role in building and maintaining additional networks last summer when Incirlik helped evacuate Lebanese-Americans out of Lebanon--resulting in more than 1,700 additional people using computers and the Internet at the base.

"I think this was considered when we sent in our packages," said Airman Kensel, who recently earned senior airman status below the zone. "During that time, the Air Force processed a lot of paperwork electronically and we had to maintain those networks."

The individual winners not only provide communicational and technical support to Incirlik, but also to Air Force teams in Izmir, Istanbul and Ankara. Within the last year, Airmen in Ankara experienced a computer crash that nearly shut their offices down.

"They couldn't do their jobs until we went in to troubleshoot," said Capt. Theresa Thomas, 39th CS information systems flight commander. "A lot of people don't understand the gravity of what we do. These men (the USAFE winners) and our team sustain Incirlik's network daily, but we also prevent and solve problems daily. We're like the firefighters of Incirlik's communications network."

The USAFE award winners will go on to compete at the Air Force-wide level, but they aren't thinking about the future competition. Instead, they're thinking about how they can improve on their successes.

"This award motivates me to see what else I can do in my career field," said Airman Kensel. "It makes me think about my future within the Air Force and what I need to do to top this."