Expeditionary Center wins Air Force Organizational Excellence Award

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Paula A. Paige
  • U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Public Affairs
JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  The U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center, which provides advanced expeditionary combat support training and education for Airmen, was recognized with its 13th Air Force Organizational Excellence Award on Nov. 3.

The award recognizes the achievements and accomplishments of U.S. Air Force organizations or activities and is presented to Air Force organizations that are entities within larger organizations. They are unnumbered organizations or activities that perform functions normally executed by numbered wings, groups and squadrons.

"When I saw that the Expeditionary Center won this award, I wasn't surprised," said Brig. Gen. Rick Devereaux, who became the center's commander Oct. 19. "This just reaffirms the excellence of this organization and its incredible contribution to the combat power of our Air Force. I'm very proud of our EC Eagles."

Among the reasons cited for the 2009 honor, the Expeditionary Center ensured that more than 14,000 Community College of the Air Force credits were given to Airmen who attended courses at its schools. The center's Air Mobility Operations School also developed and implemented the Unit Deployment Manager and Installation Deployment Officer courses, becoming the first and only U.S. Air Force venue to train these skills. As a result, the Mobility Operations School garnered the Air Mobility command nomination for the prestigious Frank G. Brewer trophy for aerospace education in 2008.

In addition, the Expeditionary Center also established an Expeditionary Skills, Tactics, Techniques and Procedures Division becoming the Air Force's leader in gathering, refining and disseminating lessons learned and updating tactics, techniques and procedures for the expeditionary combat support community. Further, the center coordinated with the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, acquiring $14.6 million in counter-IED equipment to help improve training against the No. 1 threat to U.S. and coalition forces.

In a message announcing the award, Commander of the Air Mobility Command headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., Gen. Arthur J. Lichte, said "All units should take great pride in their contributions to AMC and Air Force missions."

Personnel assigned to the center from June 6, 2008, to June 5, 2009, are allowed to wear the award ribbon--a narrow blue center stripe, flanked by a thin white stripe, a wide red stripe, a thin white stripe, edged with a narrow blue stripe.

With a staff of more than 380 personnel, the Expeditionary Center graduates more than 17,000 students from 77 in-residence and 16 web-based courses each year. The center's $2.5 million budget maintains its 34-acre campus on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, which includes a state-of-the-art educational facility and utilitarian barracks to house students for Combat Airmen Skills Training. The center staff also uses the outlying woodlands of the South Jersey area--more than 22,000 acres of ranges--for weapons and field-craft training. Additional detachments are located at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and Scott AFB, Ill.