507th honors its top members during yearly awards banquet

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Mark Hybers
  • 507th Air Refueling Wing
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., - --   Men and women from the 507th Air Refueling Wing gathered at the base club Friday, November 2, 2012 to celebrate the yearly award recipients.

The awards are given to nominees in the following categories: Airman of the Year, Non Commissioned Officer of the Year, Senior Non Commissioned Officer of the Year and Company Grade Officer of the Year.

The awards are chosen from a list of nominees submitted by each squadron. Copies of the submission packages are given to a panel with the name and squadron of each nominee marked out. The panel reads the submission write up and gives a number value to each. All of the packages are then racked and stacked by total score.
According to the 507th Air Refueling Wing Command Chief Master Sergeant Stephen A. Brown, the scoring method is the best and fairest way to judge the nominees. No one on the panel knows who the nominees are, therefore cutting out any individual bias.

This year's Airman of the Year nominees are Senior Airman Fallon W. Carte of the 507th Civil Engineering Squadron, Senior Airman Casey J. Cleveland of the 507th Maintenance Group and Senior Airman Audra A. Fischer of the 507th Medical Squadron. This year's winner is SrA Fallon W. Carte.

The Non Commissioned Officer Award nominees are Staff Sergeant Natalie E. Pharr of the 507th Civil Engineering Squadron, Staff Sergeant Robert L. Mills of the 507th Maintenance Group, and Technical Sergeant Jermaine L. Thomas of the 507th Medical Squadron. This year's winner is SSgt Robert L. Mills.

Nominees for the Senior Non Commissioned Officer Awards are Senior Master Sergeant George E. Piper of the 507th Force Support Squadron, Senior Master Sergeant Taunya L. Avery of the 507th Maintenance Group, and Master Sergeant Thomas W. Lord of the 507th Medical Squadron. This year's winner is Senior Master Sergeant Taunya L. Avery.

The First Sergeant of the Year nominees goes to Master Sergeant Joseph P. Lepine of the 507th Maintenance Group and Master Sergeant Jay J. Smith of the 507th Security Forces Squadron. This year's First Sergeant of the Year is MSgt Joseph P. Lepine.

Nominees for the Company Grade Officer of the Year Award are Captain Adam J. Steichen of the 507th Operations Group, Captain Angela A. Cooper of the 507th Medical Squadron and Captain Jacquelyn S. Stauffer of the 507th Logistics Readiness Squadron. The Company Grade Officer of the Year is Capt Jacquelyn S. Stauffer.

One special award given each year is in honor of Billy Hughes. The award was instituted in 1998 by the men and women of the 507th Air Refueling Wing to commemorate the life of Technical Sergeant Bill Lee Hughes, United States Air Force Reserve. TSgt Hughes was a supervisory aircraft maintenance technician of the wing's predecessor organization, the 507th Tactical Fighter Group. TSgt Hughes died at Tinker Air Force Base in 1992 while on active service. The award is an annual unit level award presented to the enlisted member from the 507 ARW or 513th Air Control Group (ACG) who best exemplifies the Air Force core values "Integrity First, Service Before Self and Excellence in All We Do."

This year's nominees are Master Sergeant Shaun R. Loeffler, Staff Sergeant Robert L. Mills and Senior Airman Casey J. Cleveland. The winner for this year's award is MSgt Shaun R. Loeffler.