Air Mobility Command launches Air Mobility Warrior Award
This new award is part of Air Mobility Command's Year of the Warrior Spirit campaign and is sponsored by the AMC Director of Operations. The award provides a means for HQ AMC Directors and mobility commanders from the active duty, Air Force Reserve Command and Air National Guard to recognize airman and civilians of all ranks and from all specialties who exemplify the warrior spirit by both their attitude and actions in accomplishing the mobility mission.
The motivation behind creating the award, according to Maj. Gen. Roger Brady, AMC's director of operations, was to give immediate recognition to individuals demonstrating the warrior spirit.
"Our whole purpose in this Year of the Warrior Spirit is to foster the understanding that every airman and civilian member of the air mobility community must think and act like a warrior if we are to be effective in accomplishing our mission," he said. "The tendency is to limit our image
of warriors to those who wear flight suits, but that's simply not accurate. We can all be warriors, and we must be."
The award itself is a gold coin bearing the images of three mobility pioneers. First, Lt. Gen. William Tunner, architect of mobility operations over "The Hump" during World War II and the Berlin Airlift immediately following the war, represents the airlift mission. Second, Capt.
Lillian Kinkela-Keil, veteran of over 250 combat missions in World War II and Korea, represents the aeromedical evacuation community. Third, Chief Master Sgt. Nathan
Campbell, a boom operator who orchestrated the first aerial refueling involving three aircraft simultaneously "in contact" in flight, represents the aerial refueling mission.
The side containing the three images also displays the motto of the Year of the Warrior Spirit: "Warriors-First and Foremost." It also contains a declaration by General Tunner that mobility forces can deliver "anything, anywhere, anytime."
The other side of the coin carries an American flag and the designation "Air Mobility Warrior." Around the edges of the coin are the Air Force's core values-integrity, service, excellence, as well as the three core missions of air mobility-airlift, air refueling, and aeromedical evacuation.
Brady said the "award" should really be thought of as a "designation" as an Air Mobility Warrior, and that this designation is not intended to preclude receipt of other awards or decorations during the same time period.
(FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS)
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