LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Two Laughlin Airmen were recently recognized as 2015 Air Education and Training Command Civil Engineer Award winners for outstanding work in their fields.
Tech. Sgt. Patrick Ogborn, 47th Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department assistant chief of “A” shift, was the recipient of the Maj. Gen. Eugene A. Lupia Award in the NCO Category, and Kit Lui, 47th CES chief of operations flight, was the recipient of the Outstanding Civil Engineer Manager of the Year award in the Civilian Manager Category.
“The Maj. Gen. Eugene A. Lupia Award is a functional award for civil engineering that anyone in the career field can be put in for,” said Senior Master Sgt. Jeremy Pickett, 47th CES FD deputy chief. “The award is given to those who exhibit superior technical competence and job performance standards. I thought Ogborn was well deserving of this award.”
The Lupia awards are annual awards given in Airman, NCO and company grade officer categories. They honor Lupia, who served as “The Air Force Civil Engineer” from 1995 to 1999 and recognize superior job performance.
A few of Ogborn’s achievements include: saving a life while doing off-duty physical training by quickly reacting to an unresponsive Airman through use of CPR and an automated external defibrillator; promoting anytime/anywhere training that reinforced fire safety awareness to 96 personnel and resulted in zero fires under his watch; and filling the assistant chief of operations position and watching-over 15 firefighters, 32 programs and a $3 million vehicle fleet.
“It’s exciting to win this award,” said Ogborn. “I couldn’t have done it without my shift and my leadership always setting me up for success.”
The Outstanding Civil Engineer Manager of the Year Award is another functional award and is given to those who exhibit extraordinary managerial skills in the Civilian Manager, Civilian Supervisor and Civilian Technician Categories.
Lui was awarded for his work in leading the unit vehicle control officer team and positioning $575,000 worth of mission critical vehicles for mobility, refining a 5-year base management contract rewrite, identifying requirements for six shops and nine asset management plans, and for revamping the design review program by authoring the first Laughlin Air Force Base anti-terrorism/force protection checklist.
“In the end it’s not me who won the award,” said Lui. “I couldn’t have won this award by myself; it’s those who work with me that made it happen and my leadership for putting me up for the award.”
Both Ogborn’s and Lui’s award packages will now compete at the Air Force level.