5th CS Airman earns outstanding award

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jessica McConnell
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  An Airman from the 5th Communications Squadron here received the Air Force Outstanding Ground Radar Systems NCO award for the 2011 year.

Staff Sgt. David S. Booth, 5th CS NCO-in-charge of ground radar systems, has been in the Air Force for nine years and said he loves the fact that every day his job offers something new and different.

"Some days we might be doing lawn care, building something, or even climbing towers," Booth said. "Other days we might be working on one of many additional duties we have, like technical orders, vehicles, hazardous material, safety, training and more. It is nice to not have to do the same thing day in and day out."

Booth said he believes he was nominated because the civil engineer squadron had multiple high visibility projects this year.

"The squadron accepted a new radar set and with it came new training tasks and problems," said Booth. "Also, we had to remove the old radar tower and turn in hundreds of thousands of dollars of items into the supply system. I was able to accomplish all of this because of the men and women in my shop."

Booth said that if he had been working on something by himself, someone else was picking up the work he wasn't able to do.

"It's really nice to know that kind of support is there," Booth said of his squadron. "I'd say that 99 percent of this award can be attributed to the team I work with every day."

Booth said that for a majority of the year, there were only three people maintaining a six-person shop.

"That alone speaks volumes of the caliber of Airmen I am fortunate enough to work with," he continued. "Also, with my background for the first seven years of being mobile radars, I would attribute much of my success to the previous NCO-in-charge. He helped me to really understand the fixed communications picture and what our part in it is."

Booth thinks that winning this award helps to strengthen the fact that their leadership cares about what they are doing.

"My career field is one that when the job is done right, no one is the wiser," he said. "We are kind of behind the scenes, contributing to the overall mission. Awards like this really show that people are taking notice, and it makes the whole shop work that much harder to continue doing a good job."

This is the first major command level award Booth has received and he said he will continue to work just as hard as he did before.

"I love the fact that I was able to accept this award, but I don't think it will change my work ethic at all," he said. "I just like being able to say I was able to get something done at the end of the day."