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Warren's fire department earns DoD small-unit award

  • Published
  • By By Airman 1st Class Daniel Gage
  • 90th Missile Wing Public Affairs
F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo. --  The Warren fire department won the Department of Defense best small unit award for 2009 at the annual DoD Fire and Emergency Services Award Banquet in Chicago on Aug. 27.

This was the inaugural year for the Global Strike Command awards, where Warren won their first award of the year.

In June, they were informed they were the Air Force winner and nominee for the DoD awards.

"We consider this award more than just a fire emergency services award," said fire chief John McDougall, 90th Civil Engineer Squadron. "We set the standard in the fire department here pretty high, and I think that's the theme throughout the wing, and throughout Global Strike."

"It was a proud day to stand up there and accept this award on behalf of the 90th Missile Wing and Global Strike Command, being such a new command," he added.

"It's a culmination of a great year," said assistant fire chief Greg Chesser, 90th CES. "We've won command level awards in the past, but to win the DoD award is a huge thing."

In 2004, the fire department won the Sanborn Award for best fire department in the Air Force, they won the 2006 small unit fire department of the year and in 2008 they were recognized at command level for fire department of the year. This is the first year the 56 member fire department has been recognized at the DoD level.

"It'll be something we'll be holding on to for a while," added Mr. Chesser. "You look at the last five or six years and what we've accomplished and it's only going to get better from here."

The Warren fire department is very active in the local Cheyenne community through mutual aid agreements and community relations activities such as fire prevention week, the first week of October.

"A lot of what we do downtown gets identified in our package that we submit," said Mr. McDougall. A lot of thanks goes out to them for the confidence that they have in us to come out and assist in their response needs.

In April, members of the Warren fire department assisted in fighting brushfires two miles southwest of base.

"Our guys get to go outside the fence and provide a service to the community," added Mr. Chesser. "From an award standpoint it makes a package look much better, personnel wise, it gives them a lot more experience that they typically won't see at other bases."