The 434th Civil Engineer Squadron recently received three Air Force Reserve Command awards for 2024.
AFRC selected the 434th Fire Department at Grissom to receive the Chief Master Sergeant Ralph E. Sanborn Award, recognizing them as the Outstanding Medium Fire Department of the Year. This is the second consecutive year for the Grissom Fire Department to receive this honor.
The 434th Fire Department protects Grissom’s 1,200 acre installation, the aircraft stationed here and all facilities on the base. They also provide mutual aid for a 373 square mile district in the surrounding area. Last year, the Grissom fire department responded to and mitigated 445 incidents, 13 motor vehicle accidents and 11 house fires.
“We are fortunate that we have community partners that accept us, that want our help.” said Bryan Clements, fire chief. “It’s nice to hone your skills out and about and do the community a favor in the process.”
Clements credited the quality of the firefighters on his team with the department being selected for the Sanborn award.
“It’s the caliber of the people,” said Clements. “We’ve brought in a lot of new folks, and they’re very energetic. It makes it easy to write award packages when they’re out there doing great things.”
On top of the unit award, a firefighter with the 434th Fire Department, Cameron Yoder, was named Outstanding Civilian Firefighter of 2024.
Some of Yoder’s accomplishments include leading 167 hours of training for firefighters at Grissom and directing operations and resource allocations during five critical incidents. He is also responsible for overseeing maintenance and readiness of the16 vehicle emergency response fleet.
“You can assign him a task and he’ll figure out a way to get things done, whether it’s fixing a truck, whether it’s training his crew,” Clements said of Yoder. “He’s a natural leader, you can give him anything to do, and you know that the product that comes back is going to be amazing. He is now a crew chief for our department, he’s very highly motivated and very skilled.”
In addition to the fire department awards, the 434th Civil Engineer Squadron’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight received the Senior Master Sgt. Gerald J. Stryzak Award for Outstanding EOD Flight of 2024.
The 434th EOD Flight is one of the busiest in the Air Force Reserve according to Maj. Benjamen Ortega, 434th Civil Engineer Squadron Commander.
“My EOD flight definitely ‘knocked it out of the park’, and represented the 434 ARW very well,” said Ortega “But also, they represented every [EOD] Airman in the Air Force. Words can’t express how proud I am of them.”
Last year, the 434th EOD Flight responded to 15 emergencies that involved military ordnances throughout Indiana and Illinois. Additionally, they augmented 25 presidential protection missions throughout the country in support of the U.S. Secret Service.
“They are committed and passionate,” said Ortega. “They took the initiative by volunteering for deployments to Kosovo and a one-year short tour to PACAF. Their work was exceptional and led to them being asked to start up a new humanitarian mine action program in Armenia in 2025.”
| Date Taken: | 02.10.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.20.2025 06:35 |
| Story ID: | 490427 |
| Location: | GRISSOM AIR FORCE BASE, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Grissom Civil Engineers named for three AFRC awards, by MSgt Rachel Barton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
