The 55th Wing Command Post 27-member team earned the 2021 U.S. Air Force Large Nuclear Command and Control Operations Unit of the Year award for the second year in a row.
The team was selected by Headquarters Air Force and the career functional manager after the they shaped dual-base operations for the Air Force’s second largest wing while simultaneously advancing nuclear command and control from a modified, post 500-year flood bivouac location.
“No single individual secured this award,” said Master Sgt. Paul Ewing, 55th Wing Command Post acting superintendent. “From the most experienced NCOICs to our youngest junior emergency actions controller, each member showed up on alert, ready to take care of the mission because they wanted to, not because they had to…and that was extraordinary!”
In 2021, the Command Post managed $9 million in nuclear command, control and communication systems. The unit adapted command and control of assigned forces to provide wing leadership and crisis decision makers crucial time to secure, operate and maintain an $8 billion fleet of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and nuclear command and control airborne platforms across four geographically separated units.
“These outstanding Airmen won this award last year because they were a team led to not fail,” said Ewing. “They won it this year because they were a Command Post family that refused to let each other fail. The transformational leadership and perseverance of each member through harrowing and inordinate lessons only magnified their confidence, competence, and dedication to the mission, families and relationships they support 24/7.”
In addition, the Command Post provided critical real-time data to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the Department of Defense’s sole nuclear-sampling aircraft and established tactics, techniques and procedures for 82 wings and delivered four Major Commands nuclear capabilities that fortified the $23 billion nuclear enterprise.