Two wing staffers will get national honors

COAST GUARD AIR STATION MIAMI, Fla., July 2, 2010: Two of Florida Wing's own are CAP's best -- the wing's logistics director and former communications director will accept top national honors.

Lt. Col. Bruce "Mac" McConnell and Maj. Bruce Sage will be recognized at the national board meeting and conference in San Diego, Calif., this September. McConnell is the national communicator of the year, while Sage is the national property manager of the year.

Recently, Sage was named Southeast Region logistics officer of the year, an honor he credits as the result of teamwork.

"I gave credit where credit is due and that was to each member of my team," he said. "My team consists of Deputy Director Maj. Marie Berninger, Supply Officer Lt. Col. Paul Johnson, Transportation Officer Maj. Glenn Powers and Assistant Transportation Officer Capt. Stacey Sage. These people are the superstars of the logistics directorate."

Sage did not walk into logistics unprepared or unknowing. Sage is a retired sergeant major in the U.S. Army, and was the noncommissioned officer in charge for the deputy chief of staff logistics of the 143rd Transportation Command in Orlando, serving as logistics team leader.

"When I accepted the position, the Florida Wing was in a level-2 logistics freeze, potentially on its way to level 3," he said. "We had six months to fix a broken process."

And fix it he did. In a little more than two years, Sage and his team passed their second CAP-USAF audit.

After McConnell's appointment as the wing director of communications in May 2006, he completed a 100-percent change of custodian accountability inventiry of every item of communications gear assigned to the wing and its subordinate units. A comprehensive change-of-custodian report of survey for communications equipment brought records in line with the wing's inventory.

The wing was 36 days overdue to make its communications accountability report -- called an "S-8" to communications officers -- when McConnell was appointed. As if that wasn't bad enough, McConnell said the report wasn't compiled or completed.

McConnell managed the transition of Florida Wing's VHF communications equipment to narrowband frequency operations,and ensured all 26 aircraft, 26 mobile and 270 ground radios were reprogrammed. He led the team that installed 13 of 16 narrowband repeaters across the state -- nearly double the number of repeaters in every other Southeast Region wing.

During his tenure as communications director, which ended in December 2009, he oversaw commnications support for 743 search and rescue missions in the wing. He led the communications unit on the wing's 2007 search and rescue evaluation, and the unit earned an "outstanding" rating. He was also communications unit leader for the America's Shield exercise in January 2009.

Leadership is not a new role for McConnell. A retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force, he was, among other things, a contingency engineer expert who led a 40-person staff responsible for war planning, concepts of operations and contingency training for civil engineer, fire protection, explosive ordnance disposal and nuclear-biological-chemical response forces. He also commanded a 436-member engineer unit that maintained more than $230 million of contingency facilities and war reserve material in a "ready to go now" status.

What does the future hold for Sage now that he has reached the pinnacle of his field? "I want to be a part of what we in logistics have been working so hard to achieve; a single system of total accountability," he said.

Florida Wing Commander Col. Chris Moersch said the two staffers went above and beyond.

"Maj. Sage has done an exemplary job of putting the Florida Wing on the forefront of accountability and helping us make the transition to the new logistics system," he said. "His tireless efforts resulted in identifying and solving issues not only for us, the largest wing, but for the organization as a whole. We are very proud of him and the entire LG team under Lt. Col. (Robert) Hartigan, the Florida Wing deputy chief of staff-support."

"Col. McConnell has be a stalwart of the communication staff in both Florida Wing and Southeast Region for several years," the commander said. "He does an exemplary job in both detail and strategic thinking, which has marked him as a true professional volunteer."

Sage also revealed one of the secrets to his continuing success.

"As a director, you have to be willing to get your hands dirty," he said.

Maj. Douglas E. Jessmer contributed to this story.

 

Civil Air Patrol, the uniformed, all-volunteer civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 90 lives in fiscal year 2008. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the nearly 22,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America since 1941. For more information, please contact the Florida Wing Public Affairs and Marketing Directorate.