HILL AIR FORCE BASE — The Hill Air Force Base Awards Committee recently announced Phillip A. Ludos as the winner of the 2018 Spirit Award Pin Design Contest.

This is the third submission and third win for Ludos, who works as a security manager for the 309th Commodities Maintenance Group. This year the committee received 18 pin design submissions.

Ludos is a retired Army infantryman and before working for Hill, he worked for NORAD NORTHCOM Homeland Security Department.

He said he’s always been into drawing, creating and design. His wife helped him with learning design on a computer, while he helped her create designs when she was working as a church youth leader.

Ludos started working for Hill in 2014 and in 2015 saw the contest announcement and decided to try his hand at a design. He won in 2015, then entered and won again in 2017.

Ludos’ design was inspired this year by the pride and fellowship he felt working for the Army.

“Being retired Army infantry, I’m really into esprit de corps, comradery and teamwork,” he said. “I just like to instill pride so I took the Air Force core values and just applied it with the spirit of the planes and the spirit of what we do here.”

The awards committee asks for designs for the Spirit Award Pin every year, which gives the Hill community the opportunity to show their patriotism and support for the mission and the team.

Even though he has won before, Ludos feels it is still an honor to win this year’s award.

“It’s nice that the stuff you create gets recognized,” he said.

The Hill AFB Spirit Award Pin is used to recognize employee contributions to the team and to their country.

Ludos said, “The spirit pin is a really great way for a commander to have another option to reward someone on the spot.”