16th MSS Airmen receive Air Force level awards Published May 12, 2006 By Airman 1st Class James Dickens 16th SOW Public Affairs HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- Everyone that works on base probably has had the opportunity to work with one of the outstanding Airmen who are part of the 16th Mission Support Squadron. Recently, two of those Airmen and two flights within the squadron won Air Force-level awards. The military personnel flight won the Gerrit D. Foster Jr. Award; the civilian personnel flight won its category; Tech. Sgt. Bonita Donald won the manpower and organization award for professional excellence; and Senior Airmen Danielle Thompson won the personnel manager of the year Award. “I’m extremely proud of our folks,” said Maj. Jesse Johnson, 16th MSS commander. “They really take care of our people.” The squadron did this while enduring the highest deployment rate of any mission support squadron Air Force wide, having more than 50 percent of their people deployed during the year. The MPF boasted a 99.8 percent satisfaction rate in a community that has more than 45, 000 customers. They also processed nearly 4,000 people through 25 deployment lines in support of Air Force taskings, which doesn’t include their participation in numerous exercise processing lines. Civilian personnel members processed more than 1,500 workforce awards and 3,975 personnel actions with only eight people on staff. They also evacuated the entire workforce on short notice for hurricanes Dennis and Katrina and recalled the base for recovery in a record time. Two of the many Airmen that make this all happen also showed they were the best in their Air Force careers. Sergeant Donald tailored the emergency response plan for hurricane Dennis and expedited the movement of nearly 40 aircraft and 500 people. Airman Thompson and her office interacted with more than 6,800 customers with an average wait time of just over 6 minutes. Processing 683 reenlistments, 602 extensions, 410 career job reservations and assisting with 5,568 enlisted performance and officer performance reports. “Professional every step of the way,” said one personnel support for contingency operations chief. “The best MPF service I’ve ever received.”