Grand Forks firefighter 'Public Servant of the Year'

Published Jan. 26, 2012
By Airman 1st Class Derek VanHorn
319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- The Veterans of Foreign Wars association has named a Grand Forks Airman as the top firefighter in North Dakota.

John Hanson, national legislator officer for North Dakota's VFW, presented Tech. Sgt. Jeffery Rueben with the National Firefighters Public Servant Award during a ceremony at the base fire station Jan. 25.

Jim Hand, a state representative from Sen. Kent Conrad's office, also presided over the ceremony and presented Rueben with a letter of congratulation and appreciation.

Rueben, with the 319th Civil Engineer Squadron, earned top firefighter honors at the chapter and district level for VFW Post 1874 before competing at the state level.

"I was never expecting to win at the district level, and was just happy to have an opportunity at the state level," Reuben said. "So now, finding out that I won for the state was shocking."

Hanson said that the work Rueben has done both on base and in the community proved him to be "well deserved" of the recognition.

Rueben managed the 319th Air Base Wing Fire Inspection program - to include national compliance of 240 buildings valued at more than $88 million -- and maintained zero fiscal fire loss and 100 percent compliance.

He was the first technical sergeant in the wing to be awarded the CCAF Professional Management Certification and trained 54 responders on a $223 million National Airborne Operations Center program on egress and rescue procedures, distributed more than 450 fire safety packages throughout the community and conducted 63 in-home fire safety briefing. He also discovered and corrected 97 safety deficiencies while inspecting more than 3 million square feet among 72 facilities.

Rueben's supervisor, Master Sgt. Norman Becker, submitted Rueben's nomination -- one of 29 evaluated throughout the state, according to Hanson.

"Sergeant Rueben was a good candidate for this because of his dedication to both the U.S. Air Force and the Fire Protection career field," Becker said.

Becker also credited Rueben for spending extra time studying and applying Air Force Instructions and regulations that govern fire protection to help ensure the Air Force's ultimate goal of reducing fires.

Rueben authored multiple publications for the wing, invested 240 hours toward the annual Fire Prevention Week campaign, was recognized as an outstanding performer for a wing Compliance Inspection and developed fire prevention social networking recognized as "best practice" by the Air Mobility Command Inspector General.

"I could have done all of this work unnoticed, but my supervisors were the ones that put me in for this, and I'm thankful for them because otherwise none of this would have happened," Rueben said.

Upon receiving the award, Rueben is automatically nominated and will next compete at the national level.