Superior performance leads to opportunity

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Tori Schultz
  • 6th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Lt. Col. Jeremy Harmon, deputy commander of the 6th Maintenance Group (MXG), recently received the 2015 Air Mobility Command (AMC) Aircraft Maintenance Field Grade Manager for his ability to align his team toward a common goal.

The AMC Aircraft Maintenance Field Grade Manager is one of the various Lieutenant General Leo Marquez Maintenance Award categories.

Lieutenant General Leo Marquez is the grandfather and architect of the aircraft maintenance career field. This award is the pinnacle of traditional aircraft maintenance and represents the heritage and professionalism throughout the maintenance community.

"Lt. Col. Harmon's work ethic is excellent," said Col. Reginald Godbolt, commander of the 6th MXG. "It is a tremendous honor being associated with an officer of such caliber. I am happy to see that our opinion about him has been validated with this award."

This award recognizes base-level military and civil service aircraft, munitions, and missile maintenance personnel who perform hands-on maintenance or manage a maintenance function.

One of the many accolades accomplished by Harmon was directing the record-setting generation of 1,233 combat air-refueling sorties in November 2014, totaling more than 7,100 KC-135 Stratotanker missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve.

"Harmon's leadership aligned everyone toward the same goals and in meeting those goals with excellence made him stand out amongst his peers," said Godbolt.

He attributes his success to his unit and the Airmen he leads.

"By preparation I mean learning everything you can about your job, virtually making yourself synonymous with expertise in your field," said Harmon. "By opportunity I mean things that don't always look like opportunities, such as getting tasked for an additional duty, being selected as a point of contact for a large event, or filling in for a short notice deployment. How you perform in these less desirable roles will allow you to really shine and will likely get you noticed."

On any given day, the men and women of the 6th MXG perform a challenging task of keeping a 60-year old aircraft fully operational.

"This award may have my name on it, but it is primarily attributable to the hundreds, and in the case of the deployed location, thousands of Airmen who performed herculean miracles everyday launching, recovering and maintaining aircraft and munitions to provide the warfighting commander with every possible airborne capability," said Harmon.