6th Air Refueling Squadron receives Evans award Published July 21, 2006 By Tech Sgt. Donald Osborn 60th AMW Public Affairs TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- There is an annual award given to the best boom operators in Air Mobility Command, and troops from the 6th Air Refueling Squadron received it for the calendar year 2005 at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., July 10. According to the citation accompanying the Senior Master Sgt. Albert L. Evans award, the 6th ARS flawlessly executed 4,225 flight hours on 558 combat sorties, offloading 53 million pounds of fuel to 4,039 United States and allied aircraft supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom in calendar year 2005. "We had 42 boom operators from the [6th ARS] competing against 48 other boom sections in the Air Mobility Command," said Lt. Col. Shaun Turner, 6th ARS commander. "These troops put in a lot of work throughout the year." This is not the first time the boom operators from the 6th ARS won this award. They won it once while they were attached to March Air Force Base, Calif. in 1989, and they won it in 2002 and 2005 while attached here. "Travis has been represented well for this award," said Colonel Turner. "Not only have we won two times since we've been assigned here, the [boom operators] from the 9th ARS won the award in 2003." The Evans award was established in memory of Senior Master Sergeant Albert L. Evans, a pioneer in the history of Strategic Air Command's air refueling operations. The purpose of the trophy is to annually recognize, on a rotational basis, the outstanding boom operator section within the Air Force, based on the collective accomplishments and professional qualities of the assigned boom operators. In addition to fighting the War on Terrorism, the troops from the 6th ARS continue to support every major contingency and Department of Defense exercises, as well as multi-national operations and joint-force exercises throughout the world. According to the award citation, during this high operations tempo, the boom operators form the 6th ARS also earned three John Levitow awards from Airman Leadership School and the 2005 Vanguard Award for heroic action. The John Levitow award is earned by the top graduate according to academic performance and peer votes. The Vanguard award, sponsored by the Non-Commissioned Officers Association, recognizes a noncommissioned officer from each military service who has performed a heroic act, on or off duty, which resulted in saving lives or the prevention of serious injury.