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2006 Penton Team Visits Fairchild

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Donald Acres
  • 92nd Logistics Readiness Squadron
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  The 92nd Logistics Readiness Squadron Fuels Flight was one of three in Air Mobility Command picked to compete in this year's Penton Award for Best Fuels Flight.

The team, consisting of Col. Joseph Codispodi and Chief Master Sgt. Joseph Hudgins, toured the fuels flight Nov. 7, meeting the fuels flight personnel and evaluating their technical expertise, mission and innovations Nov. 6-8.

The award process starts with a nomination from the wing commander and submission of a nomination package, describing the flight's unique mission, achievements, individual accomplishments and innovations. AMC headquarters fuels functional managers review the packages and then pick the top three to personally visit for evaluation.

One of the initiatives the Fuels Flight has is its night vision goggle training, which provides real-world hands-on helicopter refueling in a nighttime environment with the challenges involved with NVG operations. This training is a joint operation with the Washington Army National Guard and the Survival School at Cusick, Wash.

Eight packages were submitted this year and Fairchild was chosen for a visit along with fuels flights from Travis AFB, Calif. and Pope AFB, N.C.

The flight chosen as the best in AMC will then compete at Air Force level for the coveted American Petroleum Institute Trophy for Best Fuels Flight in the Air Force.

In past years, as they are today, evaluation visits have been extremely competitive.

This year's competition started with a dinner Monday night for all involved. The next morning kicked off with a flight breakfast and team in-brief. The day continued with a tour of the fuels flight as Airmen did their best to brief the team on their mission and impress them with their technical knowledge.

At the end of the evaluation day, the team gave a final out-brief and thanked Fairchild for the great visit and hospitality.

The winner of the award will be announced in December of this year.