FORT RUCKER, Ala. -- Fort Rucker's Network Enterprise Center recently earned honors as the best medium category NEC in the Army, according to Thomas Barrett, NEC director.

Representatives from the installation NEC received two awards during the annual LandWarNet conference Aug. 2-5 in Tampa, Fla. Fort Rucker walked away with the NEC of the Year award for the 7th Signal Command, medium category and NEC of the Year Award for 9th SC, medium category.

"It's an honor to be recognized for our hard work, but we definitely don't do these things to win awards," said Barrett. "Our job is to provide the best possible service to our customers and we take a lot of pride in doing that."

Winners in each of the three categories (small, medium and large) were determined by each NECs ability to demonstrate excellence in supporting customers, knowledge sharing, mission execution and Global Network Enterprise Construct implementation, Barrett said.

The NEC was recognized for its ability to perform a variety of tasks, but Barrett said one stood out above the others.

"Our ability to remotely deploy operating systems was something we did better than any other installation," Barrett said. "That took a lot of work load off the organization."

Barrett added he doesn't think there will be any extra pressure placed on the NEC due to the awards, but he does intend to keep pushing forward and accomplishing new goals.

"The work never stops here," he said. "A lot of effort has gone into putting us where we are and we intend to stay on top. We know how to get the job done and get it done right."

Franklin Simmons, NEC information management officer, said the awards were a great achievement.

"I attribute the award to the leadership we have and to the team," he said. "Their ideas and guidance helped us to maintain a high level of quality."

Simmons said he hopes NEC will be recognized again next year, but isn't concerned about taking home a large number of awards.

"It's nice to be recognized, but we're really here to do a job, not win awards," Simmons said.

Barrett said the next big project for the NEC is related to GNEC. Continuity is a big issue for the Army, and the Fort Rucker NEC is taking a leadership role in making things easier for Soldiers in the field.

"There are a lot of efforts underway to globalize information technology services throughout the Army so that everything looks the same whether you're sitting here or in a foxhole in Afghanistan," Barrett said. "We're working with the Army to make sure that happens. It's going to take about one to two years to implement. We've been working on it for about 10 months now."