OKINAWA, Japan – What does it take to win a Marine Corps Fire and Emergency Awards? Focusing on community, the warfighter and their families won Marine Corps Installation Pacific F&ES five out of 11 awards for the 2025 Marine Corps F&ES Awards, announced on Feb 27, 2026.
The Marine Corps F&ES Awards recognizes both military and civilian firefighter accomplishments of the preceding calendar year across multiple categories.
“The awards recognize departments based on category: large, small, medium departments. It also recognizes the aircraft rescue and firefighters, prevention programs and emergency medical services,” said Ulysses Taormina, Regional Fire Chief, MCIPAC. “Each year, we submit those that are worthy of this award, and we were fortunate enough this past year, 2025, to be able to be recognized for multiple awards.”
Marine Corps Base Camp Butler won the following categories: Large Fire Department of the Year, Expeditionary Fire Department of the Year, Fire Prevention Program of the Year, Fire Service Instructor of the Year, and Executive Fire Officer of the Year.
Executive Fire Officer of the Year is MCIPACs’ own Regional Fire Chief Ulysses Taormina. Within the submission for Taormina, he oversaw over 1,500 inspections, emergency repair of the Ie Shima Runway, and 15 bilateral exercises with Japanese forces.
“There's so many different things that I've been involved in over the last year,” said Taormina. “Started new programs, working with the embassy, working with Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make things safer here. Being able to get increased funding authorized, being given $23 million to execute. And then an increase of $19 million to get after safety deficiencies, building deficiencies, fire and emergency services and range sustainment.”
The work Taormina has done has outreached past him and won MCIPAC F&ES Large Fire Department of the Year.
“We're here to serve and provide you guys the same level of care, and the same service that you would get at Camp Pendleton, or at Lejeune, or at Quantico,” said Taormina. “We want to make sure that if you are a service member or a family member that you're afforded the same stuff that you would be afforded within the states.”
The F&ES Awards will be presented in Maryland, along with other F&ES DOW-wide awards. MCIPAC F&ES will be recognized in June by MCIPAC command.
“Mission first, people always, or Marines always, you know,” said Taormina. We will continue to push forward and do the things that we need to do. And if those things lead to an award, then great. If they don't, we're okay with that. Because we know that our people aren’t doing 80%, not 100%, like every day, any one of these departments here in Okinawa, Fuji, Iwakuni, I could go on and they will be giving 140%. Which I'm proud of. I think it's amazing.”