Sacrifice and perseverance earns 137 LRS Air Force Outstanding Unit Award

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Justin Creech
  • 137th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
WILL ROGERS AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Okla. --  The Oklahoma Air National Guard's 137th Logistics Readiness Squadron here received the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for their achievements in mission accomplishment, community involvement and deployments, Oct. 14, 2015.

The award was for the time between Oct. 1, 2012 and Sep. 30, 2014, during which the 137 LRS operated at 72 percent of its funded manpower. Despite this, they were able to accomplish tasks such as supporting 1,200 members of the WRANGB community in all aspects of contingency operations readiness and providing four groups who deployed dozens of vehicles and communications support to assist civil authorities following the May 20, 2013, tornado recovery effort in Moore, Oklahoma.

"What a huge honor for the LRS to receive this award," said Lt. Col. Christopher J. Davis, the 137 LRS commander from July 2011 to October 2014. "I am very excited for the men and women who were a part of the LRS during those dates. We had a great group of people who always came together to get the mission done, and they did it in an outstanding manner."

In total, 314 personnel from the 137 LRS deployed for various lengths during Oct. 2010 to Oct. 2012 to Southwest Asia in support of Operations New Dawn and Enduring Freedom. Davis likes that so many Airmen did their job in supporting the war effort and said he is also proud of how competent they were, especially around their active duty counterparts. 

"I would frequently get emails from other commanders bragging on our troops," said Davis. "They would always say they didn't know our troop was a Guard member. That is the ultimate compliment you can get."

Additional accomplishments for LRS include completing the Air National Guard Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness assessment five months ahead of schedule and creating force structure development templates for the other 88 Air National Guard Logistics Readiness Squadrons.

Second Lt. Mary Webb was the commander of the Material Management Flight during the audit. Webb said she remembers the confidence that completing the audit so quickly created for the flight.

"Our ability to finish the audit early really gave us confidence that we can handle any project," said Webb.

Lt. Col. Leeann Tumblson succeeded Davis as the 137 LRS commander in October of 2014. She said she is proud the squadron earned the award and is excited for what they can accomplish in the future.

"My goal for the squadron is to continue to get better," said Tumblson. "We have such a great group of Airmen here, so I'm really excited for what we can accomplish. I see nothing but better times ahead for the squadron."