4th CES named Best CE Squadron in Air Force

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Marissa Tucker
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  The 4th Civil Engineer Squadron brought in the New Year with a bang, as they were named the best large civil engineer squadron in the Air Force for fiscal year 2010.

The Air Force's Curtin Award, a highly coveted award, created by the Society of American Military Engineers in 1966 recognizes the most outstanding large, small and reserve civil engineer units in the Air Force every year. The 4th CES trounced the competition and brought the home the award to the 4th Fighter Wing for the second time in four years.

While the sometimes agonizingly humble members of the 4th CES usually believe in letting their professionalism and dedicated work ethic speak for itself, this win was enough to make even the most reserved 4th CES squadron member toot his own horn.

"I'm really proud to be a member of this unit. I think it's an award that's well deserved," said Dwight Young, the 4th CES facilities superintendent who has been at Seymour Johnson since 2000.

Capturing the award was no small feat as squadron members proved themselves outstanding in the areas of installation support, expeditionary engineering, emergency services, unit and community relations, commander programs and exemplary achievements and awards.

"Winning this Air Force-level award required selfless, sustained excellence from each team member," said Reserve Lt. Col. Amanda Birch, the acting 4th CES squadron commander filling in for Lt. Col. Andrew Muser, who is currently deployed. "Each dedicated worker who takes care of our workplaces, homes, infrastructure, and emergencies days, nights, weekends, and holidays, and each supervisor who leads, teaches, and sets the conditions for all employees to thrive."

The evaluation process included CE squadron leadership submitting a package encompassing the many accomplishments of members of the squadron in the past year, including the largest including overseeing the biggest construction program at Seymour Johnson in more than 50 years worth almost $50 million, deploying 120 engineers (a third of the squadron) for six months or more, responding to 1,300 fire and emergency service calls and carrying out more than 2,000 combat explosive ordinance disposal missions in deployed locations.

And those are just the highlights.

The entire squadron, composed of seven flights including 370 dedicated Airmen and civilians from more than a dozen career fields, takes on the duty everyday of ensuring the base flows as planned, literally.

From working vampire hours ensuring pipes are not frozen during this abnormally cold winter so the base populous has heat in their homes, dorm rooms and offices to assisting local law enforcement officials in disassembling a pipe bomb in the local community, the civil engineers are the superstars of the base. Many times, though, sacrifice is the name of the game, as many members sometimes work on and through holidays, down days and other occasions to ensure others are safe and comfortable.

"One of the major sacrifices is that fact that our guys deploy a lot, their on the one to one (six months home, six months deployed) ratio," Mr. Young said. "Our manning that's left behind have to support the base and the wing with minimal manning."

Less with more is the reality every day in the squadron, as many of their Airmen continue to deploy overseas to support contingency efforts. Although usually short on personnel, they continue to provide outstanding support to the wing.

Several 4th CES Airmen received major command level awards for fiscal year 2010.

2010 Air Combat Command Best Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight of the Year
2010 Air Force Civil Engineer NCO of the Year Msgt. Van Hood
2010 ACC CE Senior Military Manager of the Year Maj. Rob Grover
2010 ACC CE Airman of the Year SrA Brandon Martin
2010 ACC Engineer of the Year Bryan Joyner


These awards come as no surprise as the 4th CES has maintained a culture of excellence throughout the years.
Across the squadron everyone attributes teamwork as the underlying factor to the success of the unit and that mindset is engrained into the highest ranking person in the squadron to the Airmen fresh out of technical school.

"You have to bring what you have to the team," said Airman 1st Class Lance Pittman, an operations manager with the 4th CES. "In the end, it's a team effort."