AFMC considers 412th Munitions Flight outstanding

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class William O'Brien
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Four munitions specialists bested their Air Force Materiel Command competition for outstanding munitions professional of the fourth quarter.

Senior Airman Jonathan Ethier won the AFMC Outstanding Munitions Professional Airman of the Fourth Quarter award Master Sgt. Jermaine Washington received the award in the Noncommissioned Officer category and Willis E. Ott, won in the civilian category. Additionally, Joseph D. Shastid received the Lt. Gen. Leo Marquez Award.

"We're extremely proud of our award winners," said Col. Bryan Manes, 412th Maintenance Group deputy commander. "Their selection goes to show the extreme success our civilian and military teams can accomplish."

Airman Ethier, 412th Maintenance Squadron Conventional Maintenance apprentice, enabled a $388 million B-2 spirit radar modification test, which allowed joint mission target sharing capabilities. He was also the first crew chief for the $30 million developmental massive ordnance penetrator assembly program. Airman Ethier also built about 750 chaffs, which allowed for a realistic aircrew combat proficiency training for F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots.

During the fourth quarter, Sergeant Jermaine Washington, noncommissioned officer in charge of Munitions Inspection, managed the actions of 22 inspectors in four different work centers throughout the flight and expertly completed 310 inspections. He developed an inspection value stream map, maximizing work center efficiencies.

Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2008 Mr. Ott, 412th MXS Stockpile Management team leader, led efforts of eight storage personnel to complete more than 600 munitions movements and deliveries. He also supported 96 aircrafts as well as 15 flight test programs. Mr. Ott reorganized warehouse items for 168 cluster bomb units, co-locating over 6,200 thousand pounds of stored items, which freed up 1,500 square feet of space.

Mr. Shastid, 412th MXS production superintendent led the massive ordnance penetrator operations, enabling a $30 million Defense Threat Reduction Agency program that developed hard and deeply buried target attack ability. Additionally, he hosted an Air Education and Training Command mobile training team, where he trained 12 munitions inspectors.