Defense secretary honors two Air Force civilians

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Russell P. Petcoff
  • Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
WASHINGTON (AFNS) --  Two Air Force civilians received Department of Defense Awards for their efforts in housing management and electrical engineering at a ceremony Oct. 21 in the Pentagon.

Presenting the awards were Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Michael L. Rhodes, deputy director of administration and management and director of the Washington Headquarters Services.

Umit A. Spencer received the DOD David O. Cooke Excellence in Public Administration Medallion. She is the housing maintenance contract monitor for the 354th Civil Engineer Squadron at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.

Edmund G. Zelnio received the DOD Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service. He is a senior electrical engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Both recipients acknowledged their honor is based on teamwork.

"To me it means I'm surrounded by a lot of talented engineers, scientists and support personnel," Mr. Zelnio said. "It's their accomplishments I'm representing."

Ms. Spencer said, "It's all my housing team and the people I work with."

The DOD David O. Cooke Excellence in Public Administration Award recognizes a DOD employee with three to 10 years of federal service who holds a non-managerial DOD position.

The DOD Distinguished Civilian Service Award recognizes employees at all levels for their exceptional achievements that culminated in an end result benefiting the entire department.

The Cooke award honors David O. Cooke, known as the "mayor of the Pentagon,"  who died in 2002 after 44 years of federal service. He had been director of administration and management and director of Washington Headquarters Services.

Ms. Spencer maintained more than 1,400 military family housing, or MFH, units on Eielson, along with 48 playgrounds and five athletic courts. When the contractor maintaining 300 privately owned government-leased housing units abandoned the project, Ms. Spencer rewrote a statement of work to provide maintenance. She also relocated 230 residents to other military family housing units.

The six-year veteran of DOD also began 16 MFH special maintenance projects totaling $1.2 million. The projects salvaged and reused materials from MFH slated for demolition, Ms. Spencer's award citation read.

Mr. Zelnio's work in the sensor automatic target recognition technology division of AFRL enabled DOD warfighters to find and engage targets previously hidden from attack because of weather and foliage camouflage. In his 32 year career, Mr. Zelnio became the father of Air Force automatic target recognition technology research and development and mentored two generations of sensor experts, according to his nomination.

Other recipients of Distinguished Civilian Service Awards are:
- Stephen A. Fleet, Missile Defense Agency,
- Dr. Steven M. Huybrechts, Office of the Secretary of Defense,
- Frank D. Kenton, OSD,
- Claudia S. Knott, Defense Logistics Agency,
- Barbara Estock Mays, Defense Intelligence Agency, and
- John K. Russell, Marine Corps Base Hawaii. 

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