Airman earns rare ACE award Published June 6, 2014 By Airman 1st Class Robert L. McIlrath 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Through dedication and drive, an electrical and environmental systems apprentice student here has achieved the ACE award June 5, 2014. The ACE award, given for maintaining a 100 percent average throughout each block test, was earned by Airman 1st Class Eric Ayotte, a 364th Training Squadron graduate, originally from East Lansing, Mich. As an E&E systems apprentice, Ayotte will perform off-equipment maintenance on electrical and environmental flight system components and associated test equipment, including control, caution and warning panels, lighting equipment, frequency and load controls, anti-icing controllers, voltage regulators, actuators, relays, motors and more. Staff Sgt. Travis Deck, 364th TRS E&E instructor, takes pride in teaching his first ACE award student. "He absorbed the material like a sponge," he said. "He was dedicated to learning." Ayotte takes into account many contributing factors that allowed him to achieve this feat. "Support from my family played a big role," Ayotte said. "I had excellent instructors and the comraderie and competition among students in class helped me." The California-bound Airmen will soon be a resident at Travis Air Force base where he plans on using his experience at Sheppard as a building block for the rest of his career. "I just want to keep moving forward," he said.