LRS Airman top in all of Air Force

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Christin Brodie
  • 90th Logistics Readiness Squadron
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. --  The next time you find yourself in Bldg. 1284, home of the 90th Logistics Readiness Squadron deployment and distribution flight, or around the forward staging area during an exercise, look for Senior Airman Michael Ryder, the Air Force Traffic Management Airman of the Year. 

If congratulated, he may smile or say, "Thanks." What he fails to tell you is that he beat out several hundred other airmen across the Air Force for the most prestigious award in his career field. 

He will not brag that he authored three operating instructions and outlined operational procedures, which has decreased shipment planning errors by 75 percent. 

He will not tell you that 82.44 tons of cargo were shipped with zero errors under his supervision during an NCO-in-charge absence.
He will leave out that he manually in-checked 98,000 items in order to train coworkers. 

He will fail to mention that all of these things helped the 90th LRS distribution cargo team be awarded the Cargo Professional Team award from the Air Force Space Command inspector general during the 2008 unit compliance inspection. 

What you might hear from him is, "I just did my job." After working with Airman Ryder, or just spending some time in the warehouse in Bldg. 1284, his leadership and hard work are apparent even though his winning the award is not. 

As part of his award, he was invited to Washington D.C. where he toured the Pentagon and the Air Force Memorial as well as attended a banquet dinner where he sat next to Lt. Gen. Loren Reno, Air Force deputy chief of staff for logistics. 

"It didn't seem real until I was actually on the flight to Washington," Airman Ryder said. "I never thought I would win something like that." 

For Airman Ryder, the next step is to win the Major General Warren R. Carter Logistics Effectiveness award, which is awarded to the best logistics readiness squadron in each command and of the Air Force. 

"I especially want our LRS to win this award because no single airman is excellent," he said. "We are all a superb team."