LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
The 37th Training Wing was recently awarded the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award by distinguishing itself with exceptionally meritorious service from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.
According to the citation, the 37th TRW's superb leadership and dedication to service ensured outstanding mission accomplishment, and were pivotal in the success of Lackland's graduation of more than 73,000 students.
Also cited was Business Week magazine naming Lackland as the eighth best place in the United States to raise children out of 25,000 cities surveyed.
The wing achieved many accomplishments during the award period.
The highlights included:
· implementing the Air Staff directive of the new battlefield Airman mindset into basic military training while working on the expansion of Air Force Basic Military Training from 6.5 weeks to 8.5 weeks;
· pioneering state of the art advanced 3-D weapons software integration for advanced security forces training that was validated for use Air Force-wide;
· graduating the first Air Force woman from Fort Benning, Ga., Army jumpmaster course;
· teaming with Air Land Sea Applications Center in developing a multi-service convoy operations manual that was implemented by the Department of Defense;
· partnering with the 37th Medical Group to reengineer BMT medical care that reduced trainees on medical hold by 51 percent, saving $12 million a year;
· winning the 2008 Air Force LeMay Award for most outstanding services unit.
Additionally, BMT was the No. 1 blood donor in DoD, providing 29,000 units of blood in a year to Iraq and Afghanistan, which saved the Air Force $8.7 million;
The military working dog breeding program raised $300,000 by providing K9s to the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense.
The Secretary of the Air Force awards the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award to numbered units that have distinguished themselves by demonstrating exceptional meritorious service or outstanding achievement that clearly sets the unit above and apart from similar units.