Four Team Sheppard members win AF-level medical awards

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jacob Corbin
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  For some, it's the culmination of an outstanding career. For others, it's one more stepping stone in their careers. For every one of them, it's an honor.

Four Team Sheppard members have been singled out as the best in their career fields after receiving Air Force-level Medical Services awards. Here are the award winners and their accomplishments:

- Master Sgt. Scott Morehouse, an optometry apprentice course supervisor with the 383rd Training Squadron, received the U.S. Air Force Col. Donald Dunton Ophthalmic Senior Noncommisioned Officer of the Year award.

- Tech. Sgt. Nathan Davis, a dental assistant instructor supervisor with the 381st TRS, was named the Outstanding Dental NCO of the Year.

- Tech. Sgt. James Woods, a cardio pulmonary lab apprentice instructor with the 383rd TRS, received the John Salustro Memorial Cardio Pulmonary Excellence NCO of the Year award.

- Staff Sgt. Grant Wisner, a biomedical technician with the 382nd TRS, received the Outstanding Biomedical Equipment Repair Airman of the Year award.

The awards were based on a number of factors, from leadership ability and job performance to base and community involvement. The awards mark them as the top NCO's, senior NCO's and Airman of their career fields in 2006. After winning at the Air Education and Training level they went up against the winners from other major commands.

Being named the best in your MAJCOM is a feat in itself, but going on to win at the Air Force level is a dream Airmen across the Air Force can aspire to; these winners were no exception.

"You come into work every day doing the best you can and it's nice when things like this happen," Sergeant Morehouse said. "However, we cannot succeed by ourselves. We need a strong support team that enables us to perform well."

Sgt. Davis also agreed that a support network is key in winning an Air Force level award.

"There are a lot of really sharp people out there," Sergeant Davis said. "I can't wipe the smile off my face still. It may have been my name on the award, but I couldn't have done it without the support of my family, command and co-workers." 

While Sergeant Wisner recieved the award for his work as an Airman, he's no less proud of it.

"For all the Awards I have received as an Airman," Sergeant Wisner said, "this is by far the best of all of them, the one that means the most. It means the most because being a biomedical equipment technician is my part in the mission of the Air Force, and to get recognized as one of the best in the Air Force, means that I am doing a good job and that my hard work is getting noticed. "

For these award winners, their role in training the next generation of prospective winners is just as big a part of their careers as saving lives.

"I miss helping people and being deployed,"Sergeant Woods said. "But it's nice to see the students I helped train out there saving lives."