Laughlin Honor Guard manager wins AETC award

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Nathan Maysonet
  • 47th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Team XL's honor guard program manager was selected as the 2012 Best Honor Guard Program Manager for Air Education and Training Command's Flying Training Wings.

Tech Sgt. Kenneth Bowman, 47th Force Support Squadron NCO in charge of Laughlin's Honor Guard, discovered he won the award in March.

"I was shocked that I had won," said Bowman. "It feels gratifying because I look at it as an award for all of our honor guard member's hard work."

Bowman has served at Laughlin since 2005 and took over as Laughlin's honor guard manager Sept. 2010.

With only a little experience in the honor guard as a younger airman and the memory of the honors rendered at his father's funeral, Bowman accepted the opportunity to lead the team. He spent the early days learning everything he could from the previous NCOIC and training with the younger honor guard instructors.

"I learned a lot from them and when I took over, I decided I didn't want to change everything at once," said Bowman. "I saw that everyone was skilled but morale wasn't high, I wanted to change that."

From the beginning of his tenure till now, Bowman has ascribed to a leadership style that empowers those he leads and he believes that is part of what helped him win the award.

Bowman explained that it's all about ownership, so he began picking out members of his team that seemed timid and worked to break them out of their shell by giving them more and more responsibilities.

Some became instructors, some helped plan events and everyone pitched in to cleanup and paint each building they moved to and trained out of to make it theirs, explained Bowman.

"My goal was to make a team that when asked 'who wants to go to this event?' everyone raises their hands," said Bowman.

Senior Airman Evens Perjuste, 47th Civil Engineer Squadron and one of Laughlin's Lead honor guardsmen, appreciates Bowman's willingness to let the guardsmen fill many of those leadership roles.

"He is always there to mentor us when we need it," said Perjuste. "But he never micromanages us, he guides us and then relies on us to get the mission done. From training new Airmen, leading practices, giving briefings and leading events, he trusts us."
This buy-in allows his honor guardsmen to overcome a lot of challenges, explained Bowman

Laughlin's Honor Guard is responsible for 35,000 square miles of Texas and Laughlin itself is located far from many of the small towns that rely on Laughlin's Honor Guard for military ceremonies, he explained.

"We've had to overcome a lot of obstacles and endure many challenges to get this job done," said Bowman. "Even though the area we cover is sparse there are a lot of veterans that deserve our service."

In addition to the wide area of responsibility, Bowman and his guardsmen have dealt with manning and training issues. Due to Laughlin's size, most shops can't afford to have members volunteer their time to the honor guard or devote as much time as Bowman would like to practice.

"Training is very important to us," Bowman said. "If we aren't proficient at ceremonies, we don't look good and it's bad on us, the base and the Air Force."

Nevertheless Laughlin's Honor Guard has overcome these obstacles to get their mission done thanks to Bowman and the Airmen he has empowered and that's why Bowman was selected for the award.

"He earned it, he is always passionate and excited and it shows," said Perjuste. "We might have three or more funerals back-to-back and we might be tired or just want a weekend off, but his passion drives us on. He relies on us to help plan what we can do and that makes us better guardsmen."