Desert Lightning News So. AZ Edition, June 1 2018
P. 1
Vol. 11, No. 6 Serving Southern Arizona’s military community, including Davis-Monthan Air Force Base June 2018 AN AEROTECH NEWS AND REVIEW PUBLICATION • WWW.AEROTECHNEWS.COM
AN AEROTECH NEWS AND REVIEW PUBLICATION • WWW.AEROTECHNEWS.COM
INSIDE
STORIES
Maintainers honored, 3 D-M Airman best CGO, 4
Blind son gets service dog, 5
Athletes of the year, 6 Know alcohol limits, 13 Sweepstakes, 16
FEATURE
Airman 1st Class Michael Beyer
SFS RETREAT FoR FALLEN
See Page 10
An A-10C Thunderbolt II performs aerial maneuvers March 3 during the annual Heritage Flight Training and Certification Course at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Established in 1997, the HFTCC certifies civilian pilots of historic military aircraft and U.S. Air Force pilots to fly in formation during air shows. For more photos, see Page 14
Davis-Monthan named top base in AF
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by 355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
The Office of the Secretary of Defense named Davis-Monthan the top base in the Air Force for the second time in six years.
The base won the 2018 Commander-in-Chief’s Installation Ex- cellence Award, which recognizes the outstanding and innovative efforts of the service members who operate and maintain U.S. military installations. Davis-Monthan last won the award in 2012.
Installations from across the Air Force competed for the award based on how well they achieve departmental objectives in several areas of installation management, including mission support, energy conservation, quality of life and unit morale, environmen- tal stewardship, real property management, safety, health and security, communications and public relations.
“This trophy recognizes 11,000 D-M Airmen who think, innovate and execute at an extraordinary level every day,” said Col. Scott Campbell, 355th Fighter Wing commander.
D-M is comprised of 34 unique mission partners that support four combatant commanders worldwide. Some of these operations include
close-air support, combat search and rescue, airborne electronic combat, weather operations, and aircraft storage and regeneration. The base is well positioned to execute this variety of mission
sets given its consistent weather, abundant airspace, proximity to dynamic training areas and adjacency to Tucson, a city of more than one million people.
These qualities allow units here to conduct year-round training events in the most realistic simulated deployed conditions possible. D-M will be awarded several accolades, including the instal- lation excellence trophy and flag, and granted $700,000 for base
improvements.
Airmen were able to suggest improvements by filling out an
electronic survey that let them select from a list of improvement options or add their own.
“It wasn’t the chiefs and commanders who won this award, it was the Airmen,” Campbell said. “This is all thanks to them.”
See Top, Page 14
