Warren Missileers earn right to be called 20th AF Crew of the Year

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Evan Fay
  • 320th Missile Squadron
F. E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. --  Throughout one's military career there are many opportunities to succeed and find a niche. Those that excel might even be formally recognized for it at the squadron, group or even base level. Well, for two outstanding gentlemen, their hard work, and dedication did just that ... and much more.

First Lt. Jeffrey Maciejewski, 320th Missile Squadron missile combat crew commander, and 1st Lt. Tyler Remkus, 320th MS deputy missile combat crew commander, have racked up quite a list of accomplishments since their arrival to F. E. Warren Air Force Base. As a crew, they swept the ICBM operations trophies during the 2012 Global Strike Challenge. This has never been done before in one year by a single crew. The trophies the crew won are the McMahon Trophy for best Weapons System Operations, the Neary Trophy for best Emergency War Orders team and the Linhard Trophy for Best ICBM Operations Crew. In addition, their performance was crucial to the 90th Operations Group earning the Klotz Award for Best operations group.

As in any military competition, commanders want to send their best and brightest. When asking the crew commander, Maciejewski, to briefly describe the crew's preparation for the competition, he said, "We studied a lot, plenty of crazy scenarios to push our limits. Our trainers made sure we saw anything and everything." In further discussion with the crew, they described a typical training day as going from 4am to 4pm, and sometimes longer.

If the Global Strike Challenge trophies were not enough, they were also selected as ICBM Combat Crew of the Year for the 320th Missile Squadron, 90th Operations Group and they best out 250 other crews across three missile wings for the Twentieth Air Force ICBM Crew of the Year.

When asked about how he feels about his list of accomplishments thus far, Remkus stated, "I feel fortunate. We succeeded due to a lot of other people's hard work. As far as the Global Strike Challenge is concerned, we were actually the crew who struggled quite a bit during training. However, due to the extra attention by the trainers, we were able to learn, get better, and then eventually succeed."

Many would attribute the ICBM Crew of the Year awards to be solely due to their participation and eventual victory in the Global Strike Challenge competition. They consistently exceeded standards by earning the MAJCOM's highest rating in 6 evaluations, authored 6 evaluation scenarios that validated the proficiency of 110 crew members, and Remkus was hand-selected to brief Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, Air Force Chief of Staff, during his first visit to an ICBM unit when he and then Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force James A. Roy visited F. E. Warren Air Force Base last November.

With all the hard work and dedication displayed by these gentlemen one need not wonder why they have been recognized as the cream of the crop.