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MacDill's 6th CS tech control team honored with DOD award

  • Published
  • By Nick Stubbs
  • Thunderbolt Editor
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Communication is the forte of the 6th Communications Squadron, and the U.S. Department of Defense judges had no problem understanding the message of performance exhibited by the MacDill Team.

The 6th CS's tech control facility team was recently named tops in the 4-Gig Transmission Facilities category of the annual Defense Information Systems Agency Facility of the Year Awards. The award recognizes the accomplishments in management and control of the Defense Information Systems Network in 2010.

"This has been a great honor," said Tech. Sgt. Paul Brunney of the 6th CS. "To have the professionals here - Airman, NCOs, contractors -- to make this possible is truly a blessing; It is not often that one get's to be a part of something so singularly distinctive."

Sergeant Brunney noted that many extra hours of training, correcting, implementing, and coordinating made the award possible.

"Every individual that has contributed to this award should be proud, it was well deserved, and I am thankful to have the opportunity to be working with such impressive technicians and to have the leadership that has been willing to facilitate our needs," said Sergeant Brunney.

The $4 million tech control facility at MacDill AFB is the major nodal Global Information Grid facility in Florida. The TCF provides command and control communications support to the 6th Air Mobility Wing, 927th Air Refueling Wing, and five combatant commands: U.S. Central Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Joint Forces Command, U.S. Southern Command, and U.S. Northern Command.

In addition, the TCF provides services to 36 tenant units at MacDill.

In the past, the TCF has won the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, General Edwin Rawling Team Award, and four AMC-level Information Dominance Professional of the Year Awards. The TCF Airmen continued remarkable communications support for the wing which contributed to the wing's "Excellent" rating during Air Mobility Command's no-notice Nuclear operational readiness inspection. In addition, the TCF supported the war fighter by deploying 10 Airmen to contingency operations within the CONUS and at overseas locations, resulting in letters of achievement and/or commendation for their efforts.

Standardization and modernization was the motto for 2010. The TCF team installed a General Officer residences suite which enabled secure command/control links for 53 USCENTCOM and USSOCOM senior leaders. The TCF team expanded equipment lifespan by relocating equipment to new racks, and maintained an average of 99.99 percent reliability on all facility links and equipment, among many other accomplishments in 2010.