Ferguson-Oliver named 'Support Airman of the Week'

  • Published
  • By Staff Reports
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Tech. Sgt. Samantha Ferguson-Oliver, 82nd Training Wing NCO in-charge of chapel resource management and native of Fayetteville, N.C., has been in the Air Force for 12 years and is the Support Airman of the Week at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, for the week of Oct. 20-26, 2015. Ferguson-Oliver is responsible for managing a $220,000 budget, eight contracts and three government purchase card accounts.

How she impacts the training mission:
"Ferguson-Oliver is a tremendous asset to team Sheppard," said Master Sgt. Brandon Thompson, Ferguson-Oliver's supervisor. "Her 'can do' attitude, compassion and professionalism drive her as she seeks to spiritually train and inspire Airmen and their families. She accomplishes this through a unique skillset of crisis intervention counseling [grief and suicide prevention], advising squadron leadership on ethnic and moral issues and daily unit engagement with her religious support team partner. The Chaplain Corps is the only entity in the Department of Defense that provides 100 percent confidentiality."

Over the last two fiscal years, she has increased their budget by 80 percent while garnering $199,000 in end of year funding. Her actions supported the daily operations of the Air Force's largest Airmen Ministry Center [more than 180,000 visitors annually] which supports the Air Force's largest technical training wing.

Most significant accomplishments:
· Provided 232 hours of on-call crisis counseling that diffused emergency situations and bolstered resiliency for 23 Airmen.
· Received the first Diamond Sharp Team Award from the 1st Sergeants.
· Selected as the Unit Effectiveness Inspection Superior Performer.
· Created and led the first ever Divorce Care Conference in Areas of Responsibility (a term used to describe areas where service members are deployed).

"Ferguson-Oliver followed her father's footsteps of becoming an enlisted Air Force member," said Thompson. "She initially started her military career as an Air Traffic Controller and crossed trained into the Chaplain Corps in pursuit of correlating the job knowledge gained in the career field with her aspirations of becoming a counseling psychologist for youth. She and her husband Technical Sergeant Karriem Oliver are the only husband and wife Chaplain Assistant team in the Air Force."