U.S. Army Awardees

• Enlisted - SFC /E7 Wilfrid M. Chapdelaine -  SFC Wilfrid M. Chapdelaine deployed to Bahrain to assist with mission restorals impacting the entire OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM/OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM area of operation. He is a superb technical leader with demonstrated abilities and communications skills to work with a multi-Service, civilian, and contractor team to accomplish the mission SFC Chapdelaine was always ready for any challenge, consistently sought ways to improve existing processes, volunteered to lead new projects/tasks, and achieved success beyond expectations.
• Officer CPT/03 Gregory Van Bemden -  CPT Van Bemden served a 15 month deployment with the 67th Signal Battalion in Balad, Iraq where he was the officer-in-charge of the commercialization of the largest site in Iraq. In 15 months in Iraq, his platoon expanded communication services to over 20 new units on LSA Anaconda. In October 2007, 15 Soldiers were needed 24/7 to provide maintenance support to the LSA. By January 2009, only 5 Soldiers were needed to maintain the new network. He overcame the obstacles of a joint base, JITC approval, and skill set mismatches within his platoons.

U.S. Marine Corps Awardees

• Enlisted - GySgt/E7 Eric Hernandez - GySgt Hernandez’s performance greatly exceeded that of his most capable peers, displayed with superior initiative and superb leadership throughout a dynamic and highly successful combat deployment to Afghanistan while serving as the Marine Special Operations Company senior communicator. He and his 12 Marines maintained significantly more communications equipment than an infantry battalion maintains with more than 60 Marines, because predeployment he trained his communicators to maintain proper communications in desert, jungle, mountainous, woodland, and urban environments. GySgt Hernandez trained his communicators to maintain communications while conducting amphibious, airborne, mobile, and dive special operations. Demonstrating his prowess and aggressive nature, GySgt Hernandez successfully participated in numerous Combat Reconnaissance Patrols, Key Leader Engagements, Humanitarian Aid Drops, and Medical Capabilities for the indigenous population. GySgt Hernandez’s performance throughout this period has been exemplary in all aspects, from headquarters in garrison, to the most hectic and violent battlefields imaginable in Afghanistan.

• Officer Capt/03 John Hooks - Captain Hooks, assigned as a Network Engineer supporting the Internet Protocol transformation of the Global Information Grid, volunteered to lead the deployment of the expansion of the Digital Video Broadcasting – Captain Hooks lead a five (5) member technical team that deployed very small satellite systems throughout Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Captain Hooks assisted the US Army in the stand-up of the Task Force–Odin system at Forward Operating Base Spiecher in Iraq. Captain Hooks and his team then traveled throughout Iraq and Afghanistan to field, train, and assist with the initial deployment of DVB-RCS systems to deployed units representing all services. Captain Hooks and his team continually traveled into hazardous areas and worked under adverse conditions to provide a critical capability to our Warfighters. Successful deployment and detonations of IEDs fell by over 70% thanks in part to Captain Hooks’ direct contribution. He is a vital enabler for intelligence dissemination. It is his superb professional expertise and warrior experience, that focuses and motivates his team.

U.S. Navy Awardees

• Enlisted - ETC/E7 Brian Dunn - Chief Petty Officer Dunn served onboard USS WHIDBEY ISLAND (LSD 41) responsible for all actions associated with the C4I suite. Chief Petty Officer Dunn also served for various periods as the acting Combat Systems Officer, the acting Electronics Material Officer, and the acting Division Officer for Operations Electronics Division. A peerless deckplate leader, Chief Dunn’s technical ability and supreme professional pride were absolutely critical to the operational success of USS WHIDBEY ISLAND (LSD 41) during a seven month deployment to the Horn of Africa in direct support of the Global War on Terrorism and antipiracy operations. His professional resourcefulness allowed WHIDBEY ISLAND to remain on station in Somali territorial waters for more than 50 consecutive days, an action which led to the safe release of five pirated vessels and more than 80 hostages. Chief Petty Officer Dunn is a proven warfighter.

• Officer CW03 Carlos Santos - CWO3 Santos, distinguished himself with outstanding service as the Communications Officer for Riverine Squadron 1 while conducting riverine security and irregular warfare operations in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. CWO3 Santos successfully coordinated C4I equipment and Riverine personnel through seven months of combat operations along the waterways at remote combat outposts. His efforts resulted in the safe conduct of over 200 tactical convoys and over 100 waterborne patrols in a combat zone. His efforts undoubtedly saved lives in a perilous combat environment. He shared with Iraqi civilian and military leadership the Riverine support to civic assistance, which increased public support for the United States effort in Iraq and refuted insurgent propaganda. He exposed himself to enemy observation outside friendly lines on numerous occasions to ensure the facts were recorded, and followed the effort to completion to ensure the truths were told.
  

U.S. Air Force Awardees

• Enlisted - Senior Airman/E4 Gary J. Keith Kilmer - Senior Airman Gary J. Kilmer is a Tactical Radio Maintainer assigned with 1st Special Operations Communications Squadron. As director for a classified Special Operation Command South operation, he was responsible for initial communications at three forward operating bases supporting the operations. While filling this unique position, SrA Kilmer successfully completed 162 combat hours and 14 combat missions. When Hurlburt Field, Florida, came under threat of Hurricane Gustav, SrA Kilmer was placed in charge of a five-airmen team tasked with evacuating vital communications equipment from Hurlburt Field, Florida, to Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida. Also Hurlburt Field, he introduced barcode scanners to automate an equipment sign-out program, slashing the time to ready a communications package for deployment from two hours to ten minutes.

• Officer Capt/03 Stacie Rembold - Capt Stacie Rembold commanded the largest communications flight in the Air Force Materiel Command--140 personnel of the 96th Communication Squadron supported 6 wings and 45 tenant units maintaining a system uptime rate of over 99.9%. She managed the mass alert system for 44,000 personnel, which provided life saving alerts during seven tornado touch-downs and the destruction of two base homes, ensuring zero loss of life. She also was critical to modernizing the communications infrastructure blueprint for the next 5-15 year projections. She led a deployed 26-member joint team, to accomplish distributed operations in 6 areas of responsibility with 5,000 warriors. Her team secured a first ever secure command, control and communications capability across the network in the Horn of Africa.

U.S. Coast Guard Awardees

• Enlisted IT1/E-6 Joshua Kane - IT1 Kane expertly managed the Information Systems onboard Coast Guard cutter VENTUROUS. He was the critical sole service provider for 80 officers and enlisted. He battled limited bandwidth, parts shortages, and geography. Proactively avoiding known problems, he was a single link in the communication chain. IT1 Kane was personally responsible for building and maintaining 100 classified and unclassified user accounts. When deployed, he was the only technical representative available to correct problems and maintain productivity. Without his ability to multi-task and working knowledge of every system, and the ability of VENTUROUS to put steel on target in the technologydependent, inter-connected world of interagency efforts and joint warfare would have been negatively impacted.
• Officer CDR/05 Keith LaPlant - Commander LAPLANT consistently showed exceptional leadership and technical skill, as Chief, Communications and Technology Branch for the Seventh Coast Guard District. Commander LAPLANT developed and implemented a unique information management plan for the Homeland Security Task Force Southeast, and created a communications organization that enabled the Task Force to successfully conduct a command post exercise involving more than 75 Federal, State and local agencies and over 600 participants, a full scale exercise involving seven command posts, and a joint DoD/Task Force exercise. He successfully integrated numerous diverse communications systems, including the nominating and vetting of more than 1100 users across 4 different portals and personally developed and pushed the utilization of Jabber chat rooms that proved effective when other information exchange systems failed.

Leadership Awards Selection Committee

• Chair: COL (Ret) Tom Catudal
• Vice Chair: Denise Demers
• Vice Chair: Leslie Anne McIndoe
• LTG (Ret) Steve Boutelle USA
• Lt Gen (Ret) Bill Donahue USAF
• Lt Gen (Ret) Harry Raduege USAF
• LtGen (Ret) Robert Shea USMC
• VADM (Ret) Jerry O. Tuttle, USN
• RADM (Ret) Ed Gilbert USCG