Top performers from Hill’s maintenance and logistics career fields were recognized Nov. 12 at the 22nd Annual Kevin J. Sullivan Awards Banquet.

Sponsored by the Ute-Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Air Force Association, the event recognized the best-of-the-best and their support to the warfighter from the Ogden Air Logistics Complex, 748th Supply Chain Management Group and the 75th Air Base Wing.

Dignitaries and guests from the installation and community attended the event, including guest speaker Ross Marshall, formerly the Executive Director for the Air Force Sustainment Center and recently retired from Senior Executive Service.

The AFA Awards Banquet began in 1994 as a way to recognize top Air Force performers, and since then, has recognized 525 top performers. The awards were prompted by then Col. Kevin Sullivan, and having been a major influence over the awards along with his dedication to the AFA, the banquet was renamed after Sullivan nine years ago.

Recognized at this year’s banquet were:

Ogden Air Logistics Complex

Lutia Barber supervised the processing of more than 80 contracts for the  309th Software Maintenance Group. She reduced the average processing time for contracts from 300 to 110 days.

Troy Bertagnolli motivated personnel and helped decrease flow days from 44 to 36 while increasing end item workloads from 15 to 37. 

Evan Bolton identified and corrected 11 hazards to help earn his site Voluntary Protection Program “Silver” status. His team also beat January and February goals by finishing 6,600 maintenance actions and achieving a 117 percent T-38 production rate.

Heather Burton led transformation efforts by identifying 206 improvement opportunities, 49 rapid improvement events and 25 just do its. Her efforts helped reduce overtime by 6.7 percent.

Stuart Coombs helped stand up a new machine shop in support of the F-22 Raptor workload.  Using his engineering background, he also designed a new tool to ensure consistency in manufacturing accurate parts.

Codie Davis was instrumental during the reformulation of the payload transporter flap repair process, establishing a new critical path, reducing flow days by more than 50 percent, and saving his squadron more than $100,000 in fiscal ’15.

David Evans resolved more than 220 support requests that led to increased productivity and collaboration within the 309th Software Maintenance Group’s engineering workforce.

Blake Newton helped resolve a $1.2 million work stoppage involving seven different weapon systems. He corrected 17 technical orders and designed or procured 46 special tools.

James Fletcher directed planning and scheduling functions for 17 back shops and parts reclamation equating more than 130,000 annual workload hours.

Joshua Gregory recognized the need for an investigation on the F-15 jet fighter starter inlet housing assembly with overspray issues. He provided clear and precise technical data to avoid condemnation of 120 housings providing an annual cost savings of $2.4 million.

Eric Johnson solved challenging problems for a complex correlation capability added to a recent F-16 software upgrade. His efforts resolved major oversights in requirements and logic used when transmitting F-16 data link target information.

Shannon Kucki developed an extensive Ogden ALC year in review briefing for the Air Force Sustainment Center commander and handled nearly 2,000 Complex-level suspenses.

David Long served as the primary production contact for the C-130 wing overhaul workload from cradle to execution. He assisted in development of a gated process to produce six wing sets in 18,000 man hours.

Chad Mather led his squadron in exceeding target earned hours by 6.7 percent, an increase of 23,338 hours.  His efforts resulted in a flow day decrease of the gated assets by 38 percent, a decrease of 22 percent from fiscal ’14. He also helped reduce overtime by 13,700 hours.

Daniel Michelsen was instrumental in working with contractors to bring in new workloads to the 524th Electronic Maintenance Squadron flight computer shop. He also helped ensure installation, calibration, training and certification for the projected embedded navigation GPS unit for several weapon systems.

Master Sgt. James Rice was responsible for planning and launching 25 depot field team trips that resulted in 42 aircraft repairs across 24 units. He also steered an aircraft pack and crate team to a 15 percent reduction in work days.

Jay Robinson evaluated assets across 16 different weapon system platforms and then hand-tailored the specific repair route ensuring all repairs required were identified and sufficient to bring the asset back into serviceable condition. He contributed to selling 5,739 strut/strut components this year.

Samuel Slack orchestrated F-16 scheduling and dock assignment for 219 aircraft. He crafted the fiscal ’15 schedule supporting seven different production machines despite constrained facilities, resulting in the timely return of 180 planned and 39 unplanned aircraft to the warfighter – the most credible schedule in two years.

Richard Tatton provided exceptional customer support when he arranged for and installed a portable chiller to support critical 309th Electronic Maintenance Group production until a replacement chiller arrived.

Wayne Tjoland delivered a $20 million telemetry integrated processing system/telemetry analog equipment room replacement seven months ahead of schedule and $7 million under cost.

Brian Wade assumed environmental responsibilities for his group. He also mentored newly hired environmental employees.  His outstanding performance assured his group received no findings from the state of Utah during the group’s most recent inspection.

Bill West controlled the throughput and priority processing of more than 1,158 parts supporting landing gear across 16 weapon system platforms. His oversight reduced work in process by 48 percent and old age parts by 56 percent. He achieved a 90 percent ship on time.

748th Supply Chain Management Group

Robert Allred managed 654 wholesale spares used on F-16 and F-15 aircraft worldwide. Over the past year, he averted $73,000 in unjustified destruction of organic pneumatic spares and organized shipment and receipt of $322,000 in depot replacement parts. 

Adam Neville supported The Republic of Korea Air Force by solving a fuel control issue that went unresolved for three years by both the original manufacturer and others. He was instrumental in establishing depot capabilities for a new jet fuel starter upgrade that eliminates a leading cause of F-15 ground aborts.

Richard Roy established a new test capability to correct a 32 percent quality deficiency rate for a pneumatic sensor assembly causing faulty airspeed and altitude data for the F-16 warfighter. 

Mary Wolf was instrumental in timely resolution of 360 non-conformance reports for overhaul of KC-135 landing gear components. These actions saved more than $550,000in recovered assets vice condemnations.

75th Air Base Wing

Tech. Sgt. James Gill oversaw 12,000 shipments and receipts in the Air Force’s busiest munitions activity. Operating at a rate of 10 times greater than the Air Force average, he supplied 72 wings across eight combatant commands and supported 19 coalition partners with critical time change egress munitions. 

The Nate Mazer Award

The Nate Mazer Award was established by the Ute-Rocky Mountain Chapter in 1996 as a way to recognize the extraordinary volunteer service given by an individual. Mazer was the first recipient of the award. This year’s recipient was:

Don Barbero began volunteering at the Hill Aerospace Museum in January 2013 and is an essential member of the museum staff. His continued efforts to recruit, train and retain a strong corps of more than 100 dedicated museum volunteers keeps the museum running six days a week.