374th FSS named best in Air Force

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Ruth Curfman
  • 374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan --   The 374th Force Support Squadron here recently earned the Curtis E. LeMay Award which recognizes the best Force Support, Services and Mission Support Squadron in the Air Force. The award is based mainly on customer service, community programs and facilities provided on each base.

A team of evaluators from the Air Force Services Agency and other bases evaluated the base from Feb. 9 to 14 and Yokota beat out Hill AFB, Utah; Maxwell AFB, Ala. and Nellis AFB, Nev.

"This is a great achievement not only for the 374th FSS, but for Yokota (personnel) overall," said Chief Master Sgt. James Russell, 374th FSS superintendent. "I believe this is the first time Yokota has earned this award and we couldn't have done it without the help of our local community."

Part of the local community includes the Japanese and American working relationship.

"The Japanese employees make up approximately one-fourth of our workforce here," said Chief Russell. "We could not have achieved such a prestigious award without having such a productive and successful working relationship among the Japanese, American civilians and military members."

To show the variety of people and cultures coming together to make this happen was a large part of the success. The Japanese employees also shared pride in being part of the squadron.

"As a local national employee, I wanted to be able to show [the evaluation team] how we contribute to the community (along with our counterparts)," said Richard Shimosato, 374th FSS Civilian Personnel Section professional. "I truly wanted to be a part of every LeMay event that took place here in order to show how glad I am to be part of this group. I was even able to perform as the FSS Samurai at many of the events, which was a true honor."

Although individuals needed to come together, the chief was also quick to point out the importance of a variety of squadrons making this possible.

"We had a very short time frame between the notification and the arrival of the evaluators arriving," said Chief Russell. "It was amazing to witness how the 374th Civil Engineer Squadron, 374th Communications Squadron and 374th Security Forces Squadron personnel truly came together as one team to help us prepare. I have never seen anything like it before, it was incredible."

This year was an even greater achievement due to the LeMay award being presented for the first time to an FSS.

"Previously, this was strictly a Services Squadron award," said Gary Garland, 374th FSS director. "However, this year, because we have combined to make the FSS we had many more elements evaluated. Some of these areas included protocol, military and civilian personnel offices and the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator's programs as well."

Some units recognized as being truly outstanding were the Resource Management Branch, Bowling Center, Arts and Crafts and the Samurai Café, said Mr. Garland.

But this is not to say that these are the only shining stars.

"I believe about one-third of our score was based on the customer survey forms," said the chief. "So we know this recognition would not have been possible without our amazing customers and support agencies who continue to help us with everything we do."