Kadena PA Airmen truly the 'best'

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Bryan Bouchard
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  What's it take to be the best? At least one Kadena NCO knows.

That NCO is Tech. Sgt. Chrissy Best, NCOIC of photo production at the 18th Wing Public Affairs Office. She was named the Air Force Public Affairs NCO of the Year in an announcement of the Air Force Communication Excellence Awards this week.

"I am especially proud of Tech. Sgt. Best for her efforts, both at home station and while deployed to Iraq," said Maj. John Hutcheson, 18th Wing Chief of Public Affairs. "She showed incredible leadership and courage as she managed several combat camera teams across southern Iraq, and went on more than 140 missions outside the wire herself to document coalition forces' operations."

While serving as the NCOIC of the most voluminous photography operation in Pacific Air Forces, she spent almost nine months in Iraq as a combat camera correspondent, serving with the U.S. Army in what was then Multi-National Division-South. During that time, she documented missions varying from delivering vital food and water to those who needed it, to kicking down doors to capture high-value targets in the Shiite-dominated south of Iraq.

While one Air Force-level award is an outstanding achievement for a single organization, two or three is considered rare. This is where the cliché "the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree" applies.

The same announcement in which Sergeant Best learned of her award, Major Hutcheson learned he was named the Air Force Public Affairs Field Grade Officer of the Year. Despite his name not also being "Best," officials within the Public Affairs community seemed to think the term was apropos.

The major spent half of the year deployed as the Public Affairs Officer for a joint special operations task force supporting counter-terrorism operations in the Republic of the Philippines. During his time there, he directly supported operations of U.S. and Filipino forces disrupting and dismantling al-Qaeda-affiliated terror networks in the country.

Aside from his time deployed, he successfully led what is considered one of the busiest Public Affairs offices in Pacific Air Forces through several challenges and events.

"I'm honored to receive this recognition," the major said, "but (this award) really belongs to all the members of the 18th Wing Public Affairs office as well as my team members from my deployment to the Philippines. Kadena Air Base is about as challenging a PA environment as anywhere in the Air Force; and it takes the entire team to succeed."

More good news this week for the Kadena PA office was that the recognition didn't stop there.

In addition to the awards for these two Air Force Public Affairs professionals, several 18th Wing Public Affairs Airmen were also recognized for outstanding individual performance in the career field's annual Media Contest.

Staff Sgt. Jason Lake was the big winner from Kadena, producing the Best Picture Story in the Air Force for 2009 from his six months deployed to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. Airman 1st Class Chad Warren, now assigned to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., earned second place honors in the pictorial photograph category for his perfectly-timed photo of 44th Fighter Squadron F-15s during a solar eclipse. That photo was featured on the back cover of November-December 2009 edition of Airman Magazine. Tech. Sgt. Michael Tateishi, currently deployed to Afghanistan, also earned second place honors for the best television sports report for his coverage of the chaplain's college tailgate cook-off. Lastly, Tech. Sgt. Rey Ramon earned a third place finish for his photojournalistic storytelling of tacit farmers on Kadena.

Earlier this year, all of these Airmen were named the Pacific Air Forces nominees for these awards. Others though, were recognized at that time as the PACAF winners as well. Sergeant Lake was named the print journalist of the year; Airman Warren earned second place honors for combat documentation photography; Senior Airman Jennifer Herring earned first place for television feature report; and Senior Airman Shaunlee Hostutler earned second place for television news report. In addition, the 18th Wing Public Affairs office also earned the Pacific Air Forces Hap Arnold Award, which identifies superior handling of a single issue by a PA office, which was the planning of execution of Public Affairs activities surrounding the first of two F-22 deployments here in 2009.

The moniker of "best" may not be too much of a stretch for the Airmen of the Public Affairs Office. Overall, these Airmen amassed two Air Force Communication Excellence awards, four Air Force Media Contest awards, three PACAF Communication Excellence awards, and eight PACAF-level Media Contest awards.