By Mike Barton
Public Affairs Specialist

Naval Air Depot Cherry Point employees walked away with several major awards recently from the Naval Air Systems Command’s highest team award program.

Local team members captured first place in three of five categories in the annual NAVAIR Commander’s Awards. Second-place honors went to members of a fourth depot team. In all, more than 120 depot employees were named as award recipients. The Commander’s Award recognizes the achievements of teams that have successfully supported the main goals of the command.

Team representatives accepted awards during a ceremony held at NAVAIR Headquarters June 21. Other winners were congratulated during a joint video teleconference broadcast of the event hosted by Vice Adm. Wally Massenburg, NAVAIR commander.

The five Commander’s Awards categories align with NAVAIR’s business function: Program Management; Engineering, Testing and Technology; Logistics/Industrial; Business Operations; and Quality of Service. This year’s winners were chosen from 58 award nominations.

The largest group of Cherry Point employees to win was members of the NAVAIR Depot AIRSpeed Team, which won in two categories. The team captured first in the Logistical/Industrial category, and in what the admiral said was a first, the team shared the lead in the Business Operations category. The team was comprised of nearly 500 members, including 119 employees from here.

The recommendation board for the Logistics/Industrial category awarded the NAVAIR Depot AIRSpeed Team because it “demonstrated the characteristics of a team fully engaged with the vision of Navy Leadership to reduce the cost of doing business while providing the fleet the most cost-effective solution. The plans and processes incorporated within the framework of the AIRSpeed program demonstrate a true understanding of cost-wise readiness that captures the goals of NAVAIR to deliver the most effective system at an affordable price.”

Captain Tim Trainer, NADEP North Island executive officer and team lead for the AIRSpeed team, gave credit where it was due when he stated that it is not the “senior officers and not the GS-13s” that are making this program a success. “It is the guys down on the shop floor … saying, hey, can we move this bench over here, or, can we change that?” Those people, said Trainer, are the ones who are making it work by getting involved and by looking for ways to improve the work process. The admiral echoed his statements simply by adding, “They are changing the way we do business.”

The other first place prize for Cherry Point went to two depot employees, Floyd S. Marshall and Pamela K. Bayliss, members in NAVAIR’s Government Travel Card Agency Program Coordinators Team. Their win was in the Quality of Service category.

The Quality of Service recommendation board chose the Government Travel Card Agency Program Coordinator’s Team for “outstanding efforts in providing an extraordinary quality of service as proven by exceeding the Department of the Navy goals of keeping the delinquency dollar ratio under four percent for over 9,000 government card holders. In addition, its diligent efforts to provide uninterrupted service for card members on official government travel ... enabled NAVAIR employees the ability to meet and service fleet requirements.”

The final Cherry Point team to be recognized was the Multi-Mission Helicopter Fleet Support Team, which won a first runner-up award in the Engineering, Testing and Technology category. Nine NADEP Cherry Point employees were on that team: Russell D. Wilson, George T. Robinett, Martin A. Leblanc, Alan B. Timmons, Michael F. Bumgarner, Cecile L. Lucas, Robert S. Sheldon, Anthony J. Combs and Michael G. Deflorio. Contract employees Thomas Stallings and George Lewis were included.

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