FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Dozens of volunteers were honored at Fort Bragg’s Memorial Hall for excellence in volun­teer service, Oct. 27. The quarterly award tradition was implemented in 2001 to honor outstanding volunteer service on Fort Bragg.

Of the awards presented, 28 earned an Iron Mike pin, five earned a bronze star, three earned a silver star and one earned a gold star.

“We have four differ­ent levels of awards,” said Alice Stephens, Army Volunteer Corps coordi­nator for Fort Bragg Army Community Service.

“To earn the Iron Mike pin you have to have 300 hours of community service, 500 hours for the bronze star and 750 hours for the silver star, and each volunteer must be nomi­nated.”

Of the awardees, two youth volunteers earned the Iron Mike Pin.

“The youth volunteers are required to have half the volunteer hours as the adults,” Stephens said.

The event honored its first gold star awardee in a decade.

“The gold star win­ner must have 1,000 community service hours and be nominated. They must have an impact on the entire Fort Bragg community,” she added.

Max Powell, a Red Cross, Warrior Transition Battalion chair for the Womack Army Medical Center, who is credited with more than 3,500 hours of volunteer service, earned the gold star award.

“What I do is pretty insignificant compared to the soldiers I serve,” said Powell, a former airman and a native of Cameron, N.C.

Another awardee and bronze star winner, Tricia L. Herriman, whose husband is Sgt. Lee Herri­man, 127th Quartermaster Company, 264th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 82nd Sustain­ment Brigade, works as a co-leader in her family readiness group.

“I’m very honored, but I didn’t do it for the recog­nition,” Herriman said. “I did it for the soldiers and their spouses.”

Maj. Gen. Rodney O. Anderson, deputy com­manding general, XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, spoke at the event, and presented each volun­teer with their award.

“The volunteers here are also the strength of the soldier,” Anderson said. “They help keep our Army strong and keep America stronger.”

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