Six Moody Airmen recognized as Georgia AFA award winners

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Brigitte Brantley
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Six Moody Airmen were recently recognized during the 2009 Georgia Air Force Association awards ceremony held in Savannah, Ga., Aug. 29.

Nominees were chosen from all active duty, reservists and guardsmen stationed at various installations throughout Georgia.

"The South Georgia chapter is extraordinarily proud of the award winners from Moody and is thankful for all their contributions and sacrifices," said retired Col. Nick Lacey, South Georgia AFA president. "While criteria varied slightly among the award categories, the main things we looked at were leadership, mission impact and self-improvement."

The individuals nominated were from a variety of career fields and had packages reviewed and scored by a board of judges selected by the 23rd Wing.

"These individuals are the best in a variety of career fields including logistics, maintenance, trainers and aviators," said Col. Gary Henderson, 23rd Wing commander. "Each category had several outstanding candidates and the competition was extremely close.

"We developed a board to score the submissions of all candidates based on the criteria the AFA provided," he added. "These criteria parallel how we evaluate our Airmen on a daily basis. Overall, we looked for individuals who performed their duties in an outstanding way, worked with others to always improve things and also made the effort to improve their own abilities."

The 2009 Georgia AFA award winners include:

Outstanding Mission Support
Master Sgt. Tommy Reid
347th Operations Support Squadron

Cargo/Tanker Aviator of the Year
Capt. Kyle Porter
71st Rescue Squadron

Fighter/Bomber Aviator of the Year
Capt. Zachary Laird
75th Fighter Squadron

Cargo/Tanker Aircraft Technician of the Year
Tech. Sgt. Richard Belford
23rd Equipment Maintenance Squadron

Outstanding Logistics Achievement
Capt. Brian Higgins
23rd Wing Plans and Programs

Fighter/Bomber Aircraft Technician of the Year
Tech. Sgt. Ronald Spradling
23rd Equipment Maintenance Squadron

"The domination of the awards reaffirms that we have the best Airmen serving here in our wing," said Colonel Henderson. "Not only does it highlight the importance of what we do and our game-changing effect on the battlefield, it also shows that our supervisors and commanders are ensuring their Airmen get the recognition they deserve."