The Department of Defense (DoD) is proud to announce the 2024 winners of the Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards. These awards are presented annually to recognize outstanding achievements in weapon systems and military equipment maintenance.
The Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper Award for Software Maintenance Excellence recognizes the top organic software activity that, through its mission accomplishments, provided extraordinary capability for operational units supported. The award is named after RDML Grace Hopper, a pioneer of computer programming who popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages. This year's winner is the 309th Software Engineering Group, Air Force Sustainment Center, Hill Air Force Base.
The Department also selected the Sustainment Training, Advice, and Assistance of Foreign Military Forces Awards. The awards recognize teams or organizations that have excelled at providing training, advice, and assistance to the militaries of developing countries as part of U.S. foreign policy goals. In the Ministerial Category, the winner is the Institutional Capacity Building Team for Tbilisi, Georgia, from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The operational category winner of this year's award is Fury, Forward Support Company, 4th Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, Southern European Task Force, Africa.
The Robert T. Mason Award for Depot Maintenance Excellence recognizes exceptional quality and achievement in Department of Defense depot-level maintenance programs. It is awarded for outstanding mission accomplishment, effective support to warfighters, and innovative logistics processes. This award commemorates Robert T. Mason, a former Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Maintenance Policy, Programs and Resources, who championed the Department's depot-level maintenance program. The C-5 Programmed Depot Maintenance Team from the 559th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex is this year's recipient.
Six field-level award winners were selected in three categories: small, medium, and large. The small category winners are Fleet Air Western Pacific Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Detachment Atsugi, Japan; and 3rd Munitions Squadron, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Winners from the medium category included 317th Support Maintenance Company, 95th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 16th Sustainment Brigade, Germany; and 1st Maintenance Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California. Large category winners were the USS MAKIN ISLAND (LHD 8), Naval Base San Diego; and the 48th Maintenance Group, Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England.
From the six field-level winners, only one will be selected as this year's recipient of the highly coveted Phoenix Award. Phoenix Award winners are considered to be the best of the best and held in very high esteem as the top-performing field-level maintenance unit in the Department. The Phoenix Award winner will be announced at the annual DoD Maintenance Awards Banquet in December.
Units will formally be presented their awards at a ceremony December 11, 2024, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The ceremony is held in conjunction with the annual DoD Maintenance Symposium.
To learn more about the Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards and the DoD Maintenance Symposium, you can visit www.sae.org/dod.
