More than 290 military, civilian and contractor personnel gathered at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center late last month to attend the annual Brent Scowcroft Awards.
The awards, hosted by the Northern Utah Chapter 235 of the Air Force Association, honored individuals in the ICBM, Space and C3I communities in five individual and two team categories for their performances during 2014.
Nominees for the awards came from Air Force Material Command, Air Force Global Strike Command and Air Force Space Command, ranging from local Hill AFB to as far away as Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. and Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
Bob George, Rocky Mountain Region President, AFA, assisted Lt. Gen. John F. Thompson, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center commander, in presenting the awards.
The recipients of individual awards were:
• Wesley Worthen, 309th Missile Maintenance Group, Hill AFB, for ICBM Depot Level Maintenance;
• Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Bjorkquist, 20th Air Force, FE Warren AFB, Wyoming, for Excellence in ICBM Maintenance and Logistics;
• Thomas Holland, Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, Hill AFB, for ICBM Acquisition and Sustainment Excellence;
• Maj. Patrick Reimnitz, Battle Management Directorate, Aerospace Dominance Enabler Division, Hill AFB, for Excellence in Space and C3I Acquisition and Sustainment; and
• Maj. Constantin Sverkerkounov, 5th Space Launch Squadron, Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., for Excellence in Space and C3I Maintenance and Logistics.
Team awards were:
• 414th Supply Chain Management Squadron NWRM Team, 414th Supply Chain Management Squadron, ICBM Acquisition and Sustainment Excellence; and
• Launch and Test Range System Sustainment Team, Range and Network Division, Peterson AFB, Colo., for Excellence in Space and C3I Acquisition and Sustainment
Individual nominees were judged on the degree of job difficulty they perform; the importance of that job to the success of their units; individual job performance, leadership, education and self-improvement efforts; and off-duty contributions to their base and community. Team nominees were judged with an emphasis on their contribution of the team to the Air Force mission.
Chapter President and master of ceremonies, Lt. Col. Alex Dubovik, remarked that this was the 26th year that the AFA had recognized top performers in the ICBM community.
The event is named in honor of retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, an Ogden native who served as a national security adviser under Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush and led the “Scowcroft Commission” to map the future of ICBMs.
The Scowcroft awards were originally set to honor the top performers in the ICBM arena only, but over the years expanded to also recognize top performers in the Space and C3I communities across the Air Force.
Thompson, the guest speaker, praised the 27 individuals and teams nominated for their significant contributions to the nation’s defense.
In his remarks, he related that he has often been approached by young officers or cadets who saw themselves as pivotal to Air Force success, but that he would advise them that every person and every job in the Air Force is important and in its way contributes to success of the Air Force team.
He said that while Air Force pilots and aircrews are currently flying combat missions in Syria and Iraq, it would be impossible for them to do so without a team of logisticians, supply personnel, flight line and depot maintainers, program managers, medical personnel and a myriad of others in the background to make a single sortie get off the ground.
He said that without the support provided to the warfighter by the Space and C3I communities, and without the backstop of capability and deterrent provided by the ICBM community, the effectiveness of the Air Force in any theater would be greatly curtailed.
Randy Tymoficik of BAE spoke on behalf of the event’s corporate sponsors, congratulating all of the nominees and award recipients for their extraordinary efforts, thanking event organizer Jim Aadland for a successful event, and commending corporate and community sponsors for their support helping the AFA honor top performers over the past 26 years.
