Intel Group wins ANG-level award

  • Published
  • By By Maj. Enrique Dovalo
  • 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron
OTIS AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Mass. --  In March 2010, the 102nd Intelligence Group received an Air National Guard-level award in just its second year of existence. But only recently did it collect the associated trophy at the ANG Communications and Information (C&I) Awards Banquet held on Dec. 9, 2010 in Nashville, Tenn.

Members of the 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron and one member of the group staff were recognized as the Air National Guard's best C&I Team for 2009. They became the first ANG C&I award winners from an ANG Distributed Ground Station (DGS), even though DGS-Massachusetts is the youngest of eight ANG sites activated over the past nine years.

As the ANG winner, the DGS-MA C&I Beddown Team competed for the Air Force-level General Edwin W. Rawlings Award, which recognizes one team each year that completed a "one-time, nonrecurring special project, process improvement, or short-term endeavor that resulted in tangible or intangible benefits...to Air Force and (or) DoD missions and operations."

In this case, the DGS-MA C&I Beddown Team was recognized for its work in overseeing and executing the $11.3 million information technology and infrastructure project to beddown DGS-MA at Otis ANG Base. The team's planners filled a void by taking the lead on overall project management responsibility and coordinating all the activity by base and external support agencies, something that would normally be done at the Major Command (MAJCOM) level, but which the National Guard Bureau (NGB) did not have the available manpower to do at the time.

Team members personally laid out more than five miles of fiber and copper lines to support eight different voice, data, and video networks. Over the course of the 21-month long project, they received accolades from multiple outside agencies, including Air Force ISR Agency, Electronic Systems Center, Space & Naval Warfare Systems Command, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. For example, the lead DCGS network engineer, who has seen every active duty and ANG site, praised the team for the "cleanest cable install" he had ever seen. Additionally, AF ISR Agency said that the 102nd IG Information Assurance shop's local tracking database was "better than our required database."

With a new mission and new facility come a lot of purchases, and the supply section was busy researching over 1,400 items that were ordered. All together, the 102nd ISS initiated and fielded 411 distinct procurements through the local contracting office, as well as some additional ones through ESC and the Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center, Ga.

Despite being new to the communications career field, the 102nd IG C&I Beddown Team members came together to tackle a huge task well beyond the scope of their actual responsibilities, took the initiative to learn their new jobs quickly, and then became the standard bearers for how to do it right despite being the newest unit on the block. They're all shining examples of the professionals we have in the Air National Guard.