Soldier, garrison employees recognized at ceremony

Col. Stephen Shrader, U.S. Army Garrison Fort Riley commander recognized civilian employees Feb. 8 inside the garrison headquarters building during the garrison awards ceremony.

Four individuals were nominated by their directorates for the honor of being the "Best of the Best" for January.

Eric Fleuter, Directorate of Human Resources was named the January 2019 Employee of the Month and was given a Department of the Army Certificate of Commendation and is now eligible for the Garrison Employee of the Quarter, second quarter.

Fleuter implemented changes to testing and shipping procedures while training Unit Prevention Leaders and staff on those new processes, his nomination said. Fleuter prepared them for three brigades going on rotation to stand alone locations without installation support. He oversaw the collection, inspection, processing, packing and shipping of 8,000 samples without sacrificing the accuracy of the forensics of the samples shipped.

Unit Prevention Leaders are expected to be a commander's subject matter expert on all areas of the Army Substance Abuse Program, conduct flawless urinalysis collections, provide alcohol and other illicit drug training to the unit and assist the commander in the administration of the ASAP drug testing and prevention programs, said the "Unit Prevention Leader Handbook."

"Eric Fleuter is an exceptional employee and team leader," said Aaron Harrop, Army Substance Abuse Program. "You should know that he provides outstanding customer service and support to civilians and military alike. In addition to that, the 8,000 samples that you saw that they did were actually between Jan. 2 and Jan. 8. That's five working days, which is really phenomenal. He actually collected more samples this month than any other month in the last 10 years, 11,676. It's because of his leadership and the ability to work with other organizations. It's an honor to work with you Eric. Thank you."

Other employees recognized included: Lance Anttila, Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation; Daniel Malone, Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security and David Kaiser, Directorate of Emergency Services.

Each nominee received a certificate of appreciation signed by the garrison commander and garrison command sergeant major, Command Sgt. Maj. Andrew T. Bristow II, along with a garrison coin.

Shrader also recognized individuals for their work during Operation Santa Claus.

"These are all volunteers," he said. "They raised their hands saying they wanted to be part of Operation Santa Claus and they did a phenomenal job. They reached out and touched hundreds and hundreds of families."

Sgt. Celia Aguirre, 1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade; Spc. Shawn Blackwell, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Inf. Div. Artillery; Spc. Juan Pena, 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div.; Spc. Alex Vila, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Inf. Div., and Pfc. Anjarai Smith, 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd ABCT, 1st Inf. Div., were presented Army Achievement Medals.

Their hard work, efforts and dedication to duty were invaluable to the success of Operation Santa Claus for fiscal year 19, the citation said.

Two members of the Operation Santa Claus team were not able to attend, Sgt. 1st Class Bryan Ferguson, 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st ABCT, and Sgt. Nhi Nguyen, 1st Inf. Div. Sust. Bde.

The principal assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, Jordan Gillis was also in attendance of the ceremony and presented coins to seven Fort Riley civilians for their achievements.

"I just wanted to say, in anticipation for the folks that we are going to recognize, the folks that we have recognized and everybody else in the room, we really appreciate what you do," he said. "I know that there are easier ways to make a buck a lot of times and I recognize that's not why folks are here. Folks are here to serve and it is an absolutely essential mission that we have. And, I just want to tell you that I really appreciate what you do, appreciate you being here, appreciate your service and hard work."

Those recognized included: David Porter, Directorate of Public Works; Heather Stewart, Plans, Analysis and Integration Office; Angela Martin, Directorate of Human Resources; Steve Milton, Directorate of Public Works; Deb Meldon and Brenda Bailey, Resource Management Office and Clay Nauman, Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security.

After the ceremony, the civilian workforce and Soldiers congratulated the awardees and nominees.