434th CES receives awards

Published May 1, 2017
By Staff Sgt. Dakota Bergl
434th ARW PA

GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind. -- The 434th Civil Engineer Squadron recently received two awards recognizing their hard work and dedication to excellence.

The first award is the 2016 Air Force Outstanding Civil Engineer Unit Award in the Air Reserve Component category. The award is based on six categories covering installation support, engineering excellence, expeditionary and emergency services support, unit and community relations, commander programs and achievements and awards.

The second award is the Society of American Military Engineers Curtin Award and it is presented to the most outstanding Air Force Civil Engineering unit during each calendar year.

Lt. Col. James Ballas, 434th CES commander, said he is very excited that his unit won these awards. He stressed that winning was a team effort and could not have been achieved without each member’s help.

“I’m extremely proud of the unit,” said Ballas. “Our Airmen are motivated and dedicated to being the unit of choice. That’s our motto, unit of choice, we are always ready when called upon. Winning the Outstanding Unit Award shows that everyone in the unit is dedicated to making that claim the truth. I want to emphasize that this is a combined team effort between both our civilian and military employees.”

Senior Master Sgt. Christopher Brill, 434th CES senior air reserve technician, agreed and said he was pleasantly surprised the unit won the Air Force award since they didn’t have any deployments during the year.

“This is definitely a team award,” he said. “I attribute our success to our great team and the work they do. I don’t know if it’s unheard of, but it is definitely rare to win this award without including any deployments in the package.”

Senior Airman Benjamin Stout, 434th CES water and fuels system maintenance, said the awards are good for the unit because it makes the Airmen feel like their work has an impact.

“This is a really good payoff of the work we do,” said Stout. “Last year some of us went up to New York and spent eight to ten hours a day pulling wires and winning an award is a nice recognition of the work we do. Our work gets noticed, even if it doesn’t seem like it. It’s cool to see that.”

The 434th ARW is the largest KC-135R Stratotanker unit in the Air Force Reserve Command. Men and women from the Hoosier Wing routinely deploy around the world in support of the Air Force mission.

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434th CES

434th CES receives awards

Public Affairs Staff