Four from SJ honored with prestigious leadership award

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Angela Shepherd
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  Every year, the Air Force recognizes Airmen who demonstrate selfless leadership with the Lance P. Sijan Leadership Award. Four Airmen are selected from the entire Air Force to receive this prestigious award, one each in the categories of senior officer, junior officer, senior enlisted and junior enlisted. 

Four Airmen from the 4th Fighter Wing have won the Sijan award at the base level and are getting ready to compete against others from Air Combat Command. The four category winners from ACC will compete at Air Force level, with the winner being announced in December. 

--Senior officer category: Major James Griffin, 4th Civil Engineer Squadron operations flight commander. While deployed to Southwest Asia, Maj. Griffin directed a $146 million construction program in Qatar and drove a $6.4 million redesign of the Iraqi Joint Operations Center. While at Seymour Johnson, he reduced overdue job orders by 80 percent and completed 8,000 job orders worth $4.2 million. 

--Junior officer category: Captain John Tesar, 4th Security Forces Squadron operations officer. Among Capt. Tesar’s many contributions is the addition of new blast and fragmentation barriers which enhance the base’s force protection. He also authored an integrated base defense support plan that balanced home and deployed tasks.
w Senior enlisted category: Senior Master Sgt. Alejandro Alexander, 23rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron lead production superintendent. As the superintendent, Sgt. Alexander’s efforts contributed to many things, including a 100 percent maintenance scheduling effectiveness rate and a 50 percent reduction in safety and technical data violations. 

--Junior enlisted category: Staff Sgt. Steven Coffman, 4th CES pest management operations NCO-in-charge. Sergeant Coffman achieved many things while at home and while deployed to New Orleans in support of Hurricane Katrina operations. He helped build three tent cities in New Orleans, providing living and sleeping quarters for more than 700 Airmen and 2,000 Soldiers. While at home, he implemented a new procedure that ultimately reduced pesticide application manhours by 60 percent. 

The award is named in honor of Capt. Lance P. Sijan, who was the first Air Force Academy graduate to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously. While flying his F-4C Phantom over North Vietnam on Nov. 9, 1967, the aircraft was hit with enemy fire, forcing him to eject. Despite having a broken leg, a skull fracture and a mangled hand, he evaded capture for 45 days. Once he was caught, he still managed to escape. But he was soon recaptured and put into a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp where he later died.