Ken Pickler, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Far East District transportation operations officer, was recently presented the Bronze Order of the de Fleury award for nearly 42 years of service to the Engineer Regiment.
The award was presented by district commander Col. Bryan S. Green Aug. 30 on behalf of Chief of Engineers Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick.
Although not an engineer by trade, Pickler spent nearly his entire military and civilian careers working in the engineering community.
During his active duty time, he made numerous combat and crisis deployments. In November 1978, Pickler deployed to the South American country of Guyana, where he supporting the recovery of remains from what became known as the "Jonestown Massacre," in which more than 900 people died in a mass suicide.
He also took part in Operation Urgent Fury, the October 1983 invasion of Grenada. Then-Staff Sgt. Pickler trained six heavy equipment operators and provided vehicle and equipment maintenance support for U.S. Army units deployed there.
His last active duty assignment was with the Far East District in Seoul, Republic of Korea, where he retired as a sergeant 1st class in 1991. He remained with the district and served more than two decades as part of the transportation branch.
During his civilian time with the district, he has made humanitarian deployments in support of tropical storm or typhoon recovery operations in Korea and Guam. He was also hand-picked to deploy to the Corps of Engineers Regional Training Center in Mobile, Ala., to train logistics employees supporting emergency responders.
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