Subscribe
Joe Torre, Major League Baseball's chief baseball officer, was once quoted as saying, “Competing at the highest level is not about winning. It’s about preparation, courage, understanding and nurturing your people, and heart. Winning is the result.”
Everyone has a different perspective about winning, whether it is winning a game or an award.
Three Aviano Air Base members shared their own perspectives on winning the top Air Force awards for their respective career fields.
Master Sgt. Sean Marlow, 57th Rescue Squadron Plans and Exercises flight chief, won Outstanding Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Specialist of the Year for 2018.
“I absolutely love being a SERE Specialist,” said Marlow, “I get the opportunity to prepare others to Return with Honor in the event they become missing, isolated, detained or captured.”
Along the way to winning an award for SERE, Marlow mentioned he had a great deal of support.
Marlow said, “Friends and peers have solidified the belief that serving in the Air Force was and is the absolute best decision I could have made 16 years ago. As an Airman I have had the privilege of working with and for some amazing supervisors, superintendents, Chiefs and Airmen; the types of people that make you want to be a better leader, listener, mentor, follower and human - not just a better performer.”
For those who wish to follow in this winner’s footsteps, Marlow offered some supportive advice: “Stay humble, be supportive to everyone, and look outside your own career field, section and squadron. Take the opportunity to learn from others and remember that nobody makes this journey on their own.”
Speaking of looking outside your own career field, that is exactly what Tech. Sgt. Dustin Taylor did as winner of Professional Military Education (PME) Instructor of the Year in 2018.
Taylor is traditionally a proud member of Security Forces, where he won his first Outstanding NCO of the Year award.
“Well to be honest, this time around, I feel very blessed to know that I have stepped out of my core AFSC and show that I can sustain my performance as a PME instructor,” said Taylor, “I work with some of the best people in the USAF and have great pride in representing Security Forces in Developmental Special Duties, such as being an Airman Leadership School Instructor.”
As a PME instructor, Taylor trains future Airmen and leaders firsthand – a key responsibility for shaping the future of the Air Force.
Taylor said, “To know that I have been entrusted the ability to mold the minds of our nation’s sons and daughters is humbling and not taken lightly.”
Whether as a Defender or Instructor, Taylor credited his family as his main support system to keep him performing the best he can.
“My wife, Justine, and children are my number one motivation,” said Taylor. “She has been with me through the triumphs, trials and tribulations of my career. Both my daughters, Kiarra and LaNelle, have given me the inspiration to give them a solid example of what a man should be and how hard work pays off.”
Along with his family, friends and peers, Taylor also gave recognition to his personal faith for his successes in work and life.
Taylor said, “To sum it all up, I have deliberately learned that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)”
Personal faith is a reoccurring theme for these Wyvern Winners, a theme perfectly fit for the Air Force Chaplain Corps Outstanding Civilian of the Year 2018, Renza Cristin.
Renza Cristin, 31st Fighter Wing chaplain corps technician and Italian native, describes her win as a team effort.
“I feel honored that I was selected for the AF Award, but in reality, the whole chapel staff came together as a team which helped me win this prestigious award,” Cristin said. “I work with great co-workers and I’m honored to be on the team with such awesome Chaplains, Religious Affairs Airmen, civilians and contractors.”
Cristin also credits her family as her support for top performance at the chapel.
She said, “It’s a team effort at home, too. My family members have always supported me and what’s great is my three young adult children see their mom winning these awards and are inspired by working hard at achieving their goals in life.”
These three Wyvern Warriors expressed that, at the end of the day, the goal is not just winning, but loving what you do and helping others.
Cristin said, “I love my job and enjoy coming to work in the morning knowing that what I do can help people in the Aviano AB community.”
Congratulations Master Sgt. Sean Marlow, Tech. Sgt. Dustin Taylor and Renza Cristin on your outstanding performance awards and commitment to Mission, Airmen and Families.
| Date Taken: | 07.26.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 07.26.2019 07:26 |
| Story ID: | 333130 |
| Location: | AVIANO AIR BASE, IT |
| Hometown: | FONTANAFREDDA, IT |
| Hometown: | COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA, US |
| Hometown: | NORMAN, OK, US |
| Web Views: | 47 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Wyverns Win Top Air Force Awards, by TSgt Rebeccah Woodrow, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
LEAVE A COMMENT