Citizen Airmen recognized for top Air Force engineer team award

St. Paul District Hastings resident engineer and commander of the 934th Civil Engineering Squadron stands proud of his fellow Airmen who received an Air Force top level award for their efforts.

“These part-time Airmen are motivated and determined to prove that they are the best in their field,” said Air Force Maj. Ben Rhoda. “The power of their motivation is impressive – take their technical expertise and that motivation into account, and they can accomplish anything – and that’s exactly what they did,” he said.

Rhoda welcomed 33 civil engineers home armed with the Air Force Brig. Gen. William T. Meredith trophy as the “Best of the Best Team” following the April 2022 Readiness Challenge held at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.

“I’m beyond ecstatic for the men and women of the 934th Civil Engineering Squadron,” he said. “This challenge is a capstone event for our career field that validates that the training program is preparing us for our wartime duty. Headquarters made it into a competition which makes it really fun!”

Competing with more than 300 fellow total force civil engineers, the team did not know the tasks they would be executing until they arrived on site. Instructors evaluated the teams’ performance using a scoring rubric, with the single winner announced at an award’s ceremony.

“It always great to learn about the wonderful things are teammates are doing beyond our organization in service to the nation,” said St. Paul District Commander Army Col. Karl Jansen.

A 16-year Air Force veteran, Rhoda said his unit was poised and ready for the challenge. “The functional called and said this is the team we want to represent the Air Force Reserve based on their reputation in the command.”

Following the readiness challenge, top leaders recognized the 934th civil engineers as the highest level of readiness for the Air Force civil engineers.