WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. -- Air Force Reserve Command awarded the 442d Civil Engineer Squadron Emergency Management flight the “Colonel Fredrick J. Riemer Award Readiness and Emergency Management” for the year of 2021.
“I couldn’t ask for more from my flight. We’re small, but we’re mighty,” said Senior Master Sgt. Morris Findley, the 442 EM program manager and superintendent. “The nomination captured both our contributions to home station and while we were deployed and I’m pretty proud of my guys because it can be challenging but it’s always rewarding.”
The award, named after Col. Fredrick J. Riemer, is an annual award recognizing the best R&EM flight at the major command level and marks the first time the flight has ever applied for an award. Riemer was the first officer in the Disaster Preparedness career field and during his career he oversaw DP programs worldwide. It is because of his leadership and accomplishments in the career field the award was created in 1994.
“There’s a lot of moving pieces to emergency management,” said Findley. “We develop plans and provide training, but our overarching goal is for all of the installation to know what to do, prepare for, respond to, and recover from in the event something happens.”
Not only did the flight receive the Riemer award, but Findley was also separately recognized with the Air Force EM Military Manager Award.
“He’s been in the career field and knows EM so if anyone is deserving of the award it’s him,” said Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Blunt, the EM flight non-commissioned officer in charge. “A lot of the work he puts in during the week helps us check off the boxes that need to be checked for exercises or for training and he also makes sure the wing is aligned the way it should be.”
While a lot of the work for EM is preparation and planning, the job can oftentimes get disregarded.
“A lot of what we do is planning for the ‘what if’,” said Blunt. “It can be easily overlooked but, in the circumstances that we do have a situation then hopefully the work we’ve done in preparing the wing and all the units will help people survive and the mission continue on.”
With their win at the MAJCOM level, the “mighty flight” of four, Findley, Blunt, Staff Sgt. Ronny Dady, and Staff Sgt. Kason Newman will go on to compete for the same awards at the Air Force level.