FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- U.S. Strategic Command named Fairchild Air Force Base its annual Omaha Trophy recipient of the Strategic Aircraft category Feb. 17, 2017.
This year's win marks the second year in a row the 92nd and 141st Air Refueling Wings, as a fully-integrated Total Force partnership, have won the trophy. The back-to-back trophies mark the first time a base has won this category twice in a row since the award began 47-years ago.
Fairchild AFB provides refueling support to USSTRATCOM’s air assets. Those refueling missions support the legs of the nuclear triad and enable survivable command and control capabilities, which underpin the U.S. nuclear deterrent.
“We are so proud of the work the men and women of Team Fairchild do day in and day out,” said Col. Ryan Samuelson, 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander. “Our team constantly deploys all over the world and keeps a 60-year-old aircraft flying with fewer people and less resources than we need. However, these professionals absolutely make it all work, and they do it with proven and recognized excellence.”
The Omaha Trophy dates back to the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command and was originally created in 1970 by the Strategic Command Consultation Committee – an advisory group comprised of business leaders in the Omaha area. At the time, a single trophy was presented annually as a token of appreciation to the command’s best wing.
Since then, the tradition evolved to unit-level awards that recognize USSTRATCOM’s premier intercontinental ballistic missile wing, ballistic missile submarine, strategic bomber wing, global operations (space/cyberspace) unit and strategic aircraft unit.
"The air-refueling capabilities the Total Force Team at Fairchild provides to our strategic deterrence missions make it possible for us to provide global reach at a moment’s notice,” said Lt. Gen. Sam Cox, 18th Air Force commander. “Without global reach, there is no global power. Fairchild’s effort ensures the U.S. can project that power to protect the 324 million Americans who call our country home.”
The trophy winners represent organizations supporting USSTRATCOM that are critical to fulfilling the combatant command's vision of fighting and delivering integrated multi-domain combat effects across the globe, wherever and whenever needed.
“These awards are a direct reflection of the hard work and tireless effort demonstrated by the men and women, in and out of uniform, who support the command,” said Gen. John E. Hyten, USSTRATCOM commander. “USSTRATCOM is a powerful, dominant warfighting command whose ultimate strength is its people, joint and allied warfighters – officers, enlisted and civilians.”