USAACE announces LTG Ellis D. Parker Awards

By USAACE Public AffairsJanuary 31, 2019

The U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence announces the winners of the 2018 Lt. Gen. Ellis D. Parker Awards.

The annual awards include category awards for combat support, combat service support, table of distribution and allowances, and an overall top battalion of the year.

• The recipient of the 2018 Lt. Gen. Ellis D. Parker Award for Aviation Battalion of the Year (Combat Support) is 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, Joint Task Force-Bravo, Coronel Enrique Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras.

• The recipient of the 2018 Lt. Gen. Ellis D. Parker Award for Aviation Battalion of the Year (Combat Service and Support) is 404th Aviation Support Battalion, 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, Storck Barracks, Germany.

• The recipient of the 2018 Lt. Gen. Ellis D. Parker Award for Aviation Battalion of the Year (Table of Distribution and Allowances) is Special Operations Aviation Training Battalion (Airborne), Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

• The recipient of the 2018 Lt. Gen. Ellis D. Parker Award for Aviation Battalion of the Year (Combat) and Overall Aviation Battalion of the Year is 1-3 Attack Reconnaissance Battalion (Task Force Viper), 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, Katterbach, Germany.

About the Awards

In 1993, then- Chief of Staff of the Army (Ret.) Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan approved the Lt. Gen. Ellis D. Parker Award to honor the Army's top Aviation battalion.

The "Parker Award" is a multi-component Department of the Army level award that recognizes excellence at the battalion level, the primary war fighting Army Aviation force.

The annual award aims to recognize excellence, provides incentive to excel in areas of leadership, training, maintenance and safety, and encourage innovation.

Competition is limited to battalion-size units, with the exception of separate units that are not part of a battalion (such as medical evacuation companies), and deployed Aviation task forces.

Nominated battalions are initially boarded against category peers, then undergo an evaluation against four primary evaluation criteria--safety, leadership, training and maintenance. Category winners then compete against each other for the top aviation battalion of the year award.

About retired Lt. Gen. Ellis D. Parker

Retired Lt. Gen. Ellis D. Parker assumed command as Aviation Branch Chief shortly after its formation. He is credited with having consolidated and modernized Army Aviation hardware, doctrine, training and logistics, making possible the Army's transition from the Cobra to the Apache helicopter.

A veteran Army Aviator, Parker is an inductee in the Army Field Artillery Hall of Fame and Army Aviation Hall of Fame. He is a former commander of the Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala.

Army Aviation officially became a Branch in 1983, under his watch as Dep. Director of Requirements and Army Aviation Officer, Headquarters, Department of the Army.