Fairchild new arrival wins best in AMC Published May 10, 2007 By Staff Sgt. Larry Carpenter 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Master Sgt. Nancy Huber, 92nd Air Refueling Wing superintendent of console operations, was awarded the "Best Single Person History Program" in Air Mobility Command for 2006. Sergeant Huber dedicated 11 years of her military career to preserving Air Force history for future generations. She served at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., Royal Air Force Lakenheath, United Kingdom, and Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., as historian, with her work at the latter earning her the best in AMC award. Soon after arriving at Fairchild, Sergeant Huber found out the good news that she won the award. "I didn't know I was up for it, didn't have any idea until they told me," said Sergeant Huber. "I knew right after I arrived here that I had won the award." "I felt very proud to be recognized at the MAJCOM level and appreciative of Team Charleston for helping me excel," said Sergeant Huber. A good historian generally receives good support from base personnel on the retrieval of required information. "Charleston was so helpful, from the wing commander down to the Airmen," said Sergeant Huber. "They were so helpful in letting me do my job." "That's the only way you can win awards like this, when people let you get the information and help you get the answers you need," she said. "You can't be a historian without the support to be able to ask the questions." The work of an historian can be grueling; keeping track of an entire base's daily activities can prove to be quite a task, the sergeant said. Documenting history is about 90 percent collection and documentation and 10 percent writing the history, said Sergeant Huber. That 90 percent is spent sitting through meetings, digging through files and conducting hundreds of interviews. In order to have a successful history program, it takes a lot of creative thinking, said Sergeant Huber. Like talking to aircrews to fill in the blanks when there's no document available with the information. "You know what answer you need but you don't know what document to get it out of," she said. "People think of historians as 'tell me what happened 40 years ago,' but for an Air Force historian, especially at a wing level, if you don't keep track of what is happening now, you won't know in 40 years," said Sergeant Huber. She said that being in a one-person slot leaves a great deal of flexibility to get the job done. "There is no one looking over your shoulder because you're generally the only one on the base that knows what you do," she said. Fairchild has the distinct privilege of having multiple award-winning historians. In conjunction with Sergeant Huber's award, the 92nd Air Refueling Wing historian, Dan Simmons, received honorable mention for his history program. "It was a shock to me when I heard I received the honorable mention," said Mr. Simmons. "I didn't even know that I was being considered." "It's pretty cool that Sergeant Huber won best in AMC," he said. Now that Sergeant Huber has won best in single-person history program in AMC, she will now compete against the other command winners for the best in the Air Force title and the Allan S. Major Award. The command history offices submit deserving candidates for these awards. Once the command level winners are determined, the Air Force history office appoints a panel of historians to evaluate the nominations at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., to determine the Air Force-level winner. Nominees for the Air Force-level award are judged on several criteria that include quality of timeliness of periodic histories submitted during the calendar year, special projects and efforts that raised historical consciousness, and challenges faced.
