ARATE AS A WAY OF LIFE PAGEVolume 6, B-1 No. 3 JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON’S SOURCE FOR NEWS ARCTIC WARRIOR February 20, 2015 www.jber.af.mil Volume 6, No. 7 673d ABW Airmen, civilians recognized at JBER ceremony By Air Force Staff Sgt. William Banton JBER Public Affairs Airmen from the 673d Air Base Wing gathered to honor the 2014 Annual Award winners during a ceremony at the Arc- tic Warrior Events Center on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Feb. 13. The awards recognized the Airmen and civilians who demonstrated superior leadership, job performance, community involvement and personal achievements during 2014. “To all the award nominees, you are truly the best of the best,” said Air Force Col. Brian Bruckbauer, JBER and 673d Air Base Wing commander. “We have around 5,000 warriors – civilians and military members – in the air base wing. “This is a huge wing; it towers over most wings by at least a factor of two or three. The Air Force Lt. Col. Clayton Percle, 525th Fighter Squadron commander at fact that you were all recognized tonight as Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, tries to avoid a spray of Champagne nominees says a lot about you.” after the flight which made him the first active-duty pilot to break 1,000 The award winners included Airman of flight hours in the F-22 Raptor, Feb. 3. In 2011, Air Force Reserve Col. the Year Senior Airman Sheena Ross, 673d David Piffarerio, then a lieutenant colonel with the 302nd Fighter Squad- ABW Office of the Staff Judge Advocate; ron and now deputy commander of the 477th Fighter Group at JBER, Noncommissioned Officer of the Year, Staff became the first Air Force pilot to reach 1,000 hours in the Raptor. (U.S. Sgt. Robert Lake, 673d Communications Air Force photo/Justin Connaher) Squadron; Senior NCO of the Year, Master Sgt. Chad Smith, 673d Logistics Readi- ness Squadron; Company Grade Officer Bulldog commander breaks active-duty record of the Year, Capt. Trenton Reeves, 773d Civil Engineer Squadron; First Sergeant of By Air Force 2nd Lt. the Year, Master Sgt. Robert Chastain, Michael Trent Harrington 673d Communications Squadron; Civilian JBER Public Affairs of the Year, Category I, Mr. Karl Schultz, 673d CES; Civilian of the Year, Category II, Forty-two days is a long time to Mr. Duane Leventry, 673d Security Forces spend defying gravity. Squadron; Civilian of the Year, Category On Feb. 3, Air Force Lt. Col. III, Mr. Lance Davis, 773d CES; Civilian Clayton Percle, 525th Fighter of the Year, Category IV, Mr. Leon Sut- Squadron commander, clocked his ton, 673d LRS; Honor Guardsman of the thousandth hour flying the F-22 Rap- Year, Staff Sgt. Jordan Hayes, 703d Air- tor and thereby crossed an invisible craft Maintenance Squadron and the Base line in the air, into an elite club as Honor Guard Program Manager, Staff Sgt. exclusive today as the society of Eduardo Peguero, 673d Force Support sound-barrier breakers was in the Squadron. late 1940s. Bruckbauer said the accomplishments Yet Percle’s road to that chiliad of the wing’s Airmen are evident in the mark stretches back even further. accolades from obtained outside the wing. It took three generations, three “The fact that we have won so many wars and decades of men and women awards at the 11th Air Force, Pacific Air launching planes and bringing them Forces and Air Force [levels] is just incred- home for him to notch the mythical ible, and is a testament to the hard work and sixth week in a stealth fighter jet professionalism in what you do every day in cockpit. It was a long road through Percle waits for clearance to leave a hangar in an F-22 Raptor for the flight which made him this wing,” he said. “It makes me so proud history to the first active duty, the first active-duty pilot to break 1,000 flight hours in the Raptor Feb. 3. to be working with you each and every day; thousand-hour Raptor pilot...and a well done. long road for Percle. and the single most likely way to an eventual F-22 doesn’t even give its pilots the luxury of “One award I was very proud to see come “The only thing I ever wanted fighter cockpit – soon changed. a second-seat companion in training models, in, just tonight, was the 673d ABW [being] to do before I became a fighter pilot Percle fell and shattered a growth plate in like all other current fighters – it sure can seem selected for the Air Force Outstanding Unit was to be a train engineer,” Percle his hip during basic training. like a long time. Award,” he said. said, and sure enough, fate tried He was told he could choose to start all Though he’s the only Airman in the cockpit, more than once to push him toward over, and lose a year of his life to sitting Percle won’t claim a single hour for himself locomotives on steel tracks and away and waiting, or he could try his hand at an alone. from steel wings on flightpaths. unlikely ROTC pilot slot from the University “It’s not something I’ve accomplished on my Percle’s grandfather was a com- of Memphis. own,” Percle said. “It’s a credit to the men and bat engineer in the First World War Percle headed to Memphis. women who maintain the fighter, the operations and fought in the battle of the Marne He enrolled in 1994, as the Air Force crews, equipment organizers, resource managers – a struggle that featured predeces- shrank in the wake of the Cold War and Gulf and intelligence collectors who ensure I can go sors of the 90th Fighter Squadron, War I. out and fly the airplane every day. Alaska wings Percle’s sister unit here, flying over Strategic Air Command had dissolved as “It’s not a milestone or a benchmark for me, no man’s land. Another grandfather a major command, and the De- it’s a milestone for the program and for net unit awards was a combat medic in World War II. partment of Defense fell to a the Air Force,” he added. Both grandfathers survived, and fraction of its Reagan-era “If I went back and talked JBER PA staff report eventually the Percle line brought bulk. to 7-year-old me and told forth a 7-year-old Tennessean from “I would not give him what was going on here The Pacific Air Forces announced Feb. Clarksville who fell ill with chick- up on my dream,” today, that I was flying an 13 that several Alaska units earned Air Force enpox and missed attending an air Percle remembered, F-22, he’d say ‘What’s Outstanding Unit Awards. show with his dad. and he took the took that?’” Percle said with The awards were chosen according to The senior Percle was an Army the chance of not a laugh. different categories, with the 673d Air Base chief warrant officer in Vietnam, even getting to be a “I’d never have Wing winning the air base wing category for winner of the Distinguished Flying pilot, let alone fly- imagined it. It’s not period of service Oct. 1, 2013 to Sept. 30, Cross and an AH-1 Cobra attack ing the F-15s he’d even something I even 2014; 3rd Wing winning composite wing helicopter pilot with nearly 2,000 pictured since child- dreamed of. I think if I for service Nov. 1, 2012 to Oct. 31, 2014; combat flying hours himself. hood. went back and showed the 611th Air Operations Center winning He was a survivor, too, and a Percle did get myself, I’d be pretty one-of-a-kind unit for service Nov. 1, 2011 good aviator. As most pilots would that pilot training shocked.” to Oct. 31, 2013; and Eielson Air Force note, a good pilot is usually a lucky slot. When he was Other Air National Base’s 354th Fighter Wing winning fighter one, and as luck would have it, the selected to fly the F- Guard and Air Force Re- wing for service Oct. 1, 2012 to Sept. 30, flying father brought home to his 15C out of training, his serve pilots have already 2014. someday-flying son a poster of an dad was there to run on- reached – and other active duty The AFOUA is awarded by the secretary F-15C, the Eagle streaming across stage and tackle him with joy. pilots undoubtedly will reach – the of the Air Force to numbered units that have a laminated two-foot poster at full Adding the hours he logged in the thousand-hour mark in the coming years. distinguished themselves by exceptionally afterburner. T-37 Tweet, the T-38 Talon and the F-15 to The accomplishment is soon becoming part meritorious service or outstanding achieve- At that moment, Percle said, he his Raptor tally, Percle has spent 2,000 hours, of a routine – and that, Percle says, is just fine, ment that clearly sets the unit above and knew what he was supposed to do, some 83 straight days, in flight. because it is less about the pilot in the cockpit apart from similar units. and he’d spend the entirety of his One or two thousand flying hours is not so or the plane in the air and more about the col- Airmen who served in the units for the young life preparing to do it. long compared to the time heavy counterparts lective effort that keeps them there.