AFCEC’s brightest win top Team Tyndall awards

  • Published
  • By Amy Ausley
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Two of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center's shining stars were rewarded for their hard work at the annual Team Tyndall awards banquet here Jan. 29.

Frederick Cade, a member of the rates and renewables branch in AFCEC's Energy Directorate, won the Tyndall Associate Unit Category III Civilian of the Year award.  Capt. Benjamin Carlson, a member of AFCEC's Operations Directorate, received the Tyndall Associate Unit Company Grade Officer of the Year award as well as the Overall Team Tyndall CGO of the Year.

According to his award nomination, Cade led the massive 16.4 megawatt solar project at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, which is the Department of Defense's largest solar project. The project saves $500,000 a year and now provides 35 percent of the base's power. Cade also led the effort to gain a second electrical feed for Nellis AFB, Nevada, through a 19 megawatt solar array, returning a 2:1 value on the project and increasing mission security.

As the Air Force's lead for utility repayment, he also developed a three-part YouTube training series and linked it with the Air Force Institute of Technology syllabus, posturing the Air Force for a potential $150 million recoupment.

On winning the award, Cade said he's grateful but insists it was a team effort.

"I am very appreciative of being nominated and thrilled to win, not only for myself, but for my co-workers in the rates and renewables division," said Cade.  "I look at the award as a team victory because it validates the efforts of the division.  Without the support, efforts and teamwork from my co-workers and counterparts at the major commands, field operating agencies and installations, I couldn't have accomplished the things that I did.  It has been a very rewarding experience."

Dan Gerdes, rates and renewables division chief, said Cade's work ethic is the reason for his success.

"Fred's work ethic of cranking through and not only producing a product, but a great product, made everything that he did a success," said Gerdes. "Power purchase agreements, utility agreements, working with AFCEC's Installations Directorate and making sure about their economics, taking care of reimbursements and then throw on top of that AFI-32-1061 that he's rewriting ... that's a normal day for Fred. And yet, he's always smiling!"

Capt. Benjamin Carlson, who recently became part of the operations directorate, won his awards as the readiness directorate's expeditionary modernization division chief.

According to his nomination package, Carlson led 80 International Security Assistance Force outside the wire combat missions in 6 months and was instrumental in the building of 30 facilities which were a catalyst to Afghan security force autonomy stabilization. The captain also lobbied NATO and secured $50 million for projects to rebuild Afghan National Police recruitment centers which helped slash police attrition rates by 35 percent.

It was this work while deployed to Afghanistan that was key to his success, Carlson said.

"I feel like the opportunities I had to take airfield damage repair to several different theaters of operation as well as spending six months in Afghanistan, trying to reach that end state of securing the country so our forces can pull out of there, were key points," said Carlson. "I'm definitely proud of what I accomplished on the deployment and at the end of the day, that's what matters.

"It's great to be recognized for those accomplishments, but the one thing that will stick with me is what we did accomplish. I felt it wasn't so much for me as it was for us as engineers and for this organization," the captain added.

Carlson's new boss, Lt. Col. Joel Purcell, the operations maintenance division chief, said the captain's experience will shine in the operations directorate.

"What made him the Team Tyndall winner is the same stuff that he brings to our division to make us successful and we are excited to have him and very proud of him," said Purcell. "He brings a lot of experience and he's beyond his years as far as maturity goes when it comes to CE business. We're really capitalizing on that."