ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. -- Airmen with the 28th Contracting Squadron won the yearly Outstanding Operational Contracting Unit Award Dec. 10, 2021.
The squadron performed 9,800 actions, amounting to $220 million dollars over the course of their award-winning year.
28 CONS earned the award over nine other squadrons from major commands across the Air Force after winning the Air Force Global Strike Command competition.
Tech. Sgt. Alexander Lytie, a contracting officer with 28 CONS at Ellsworth, says the office was aware of this award, being that it comes around every year, but they did not have their sights set on claiming it.
“It’s just something that kind of happened organically,” Lytie said.
In addition, Lytie believes that Ellsworth’s contracting office may have an aspect that gave them a slight edge.
“We have a very diverse workload,” Lytie said.
Lytie also said the large variation of work contracted through the squadron on Ellsworth compared to work done on other bases, may have had something to do with their victory.
“I wouldn’t say [we were] surprised,” he said. “It wasn’t super shocking, but it’s cool to have an Air Force level award”.
The victory was even sweeter, Lytie said, because many of the squadron’s Airmen are relatively new to the career field.
“I think says a lot about the team leads and the supervisors and everyone who has been training our new people,” Lytie said.
28 CONS has shown what it is capable of. As years continue, the squadron will have more opportunities to prove themselves and showcase how things are done in Raider Country.