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McChord chapel, NCO win annual AMC awards

  • Published
  • By Jake Dorsey
  • Northwest Guardian
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. --  McChord Field's chapel and its senior most NCO have won the Air Mobility Command's annual "best of" awards and now are competing for Air Force-level awards.

McChord's chapel last won in 2012, while this is a first for Master Sgt. Irene Williams, chaplain's assistant.

"They've got a great reputation and great history of winning these awards," said Col. Anthony Davit, 627th Air Base Group commander. He recommended the chapel and Williams for the awards.

Chaplain (Maj.) John Shipman said it's an honor for the chapel to be up for the award, called the Terence P. Finnegan Award, for medium-sized chapels in AMC.

"We've made some focused changes to make us more relevant at McChord," Shipman said.

Chaplains are embedded with each unit at McChord Field, Shipman said, and he established five more chaplain offices staffed 25 hours a week "to ensure care for the Airman at the grassroots level."

Shipman said the chapel has embraced the joint-base model too. An Air Force chaplain holds a service on Lewis Main each Sunday, while Army Chaplain (Maj.) Ferdinand Madu is deputy chaplain for McChord Field.

"It's a joint mission every weekend," Shipman said. "It's an awesome opportunity for (Madu) and for us."

Master Sgt. Williams said she was more concerned about the chapel award than her personal award, the Gerrald Cullins Award.

Williams, who is coming up on her 20th year in the Air Force, is one of a few remaining "pipeline" chaplain assistants. She chose her career path right out of basic training and has stuck with it; today's Airmen must cross-train into the position.

She said that while she's part of the religious support team for McChord Field, her main duties are supporting the chaplains and the chapel programs. She tries to get everyone to go on visitations to units and individuals across McChord Field, and she provides nonreligious counseling too.

Shipman pointed to how she was selected as the Air Base Group's staff senior NCO of the year -- though she's been here for just about seven months.

"She's a dynamic SNCO," Shipman said, "ready to do all things in the chaplain corps. That's why I put her forward. She's good not just at her job, but also with the community."

Williams demurred, saying she was motivated to help wherever she could, and that if tasking was something she could do, she would step up and volunteer.

That includes volunteering to be a board member on an Air Force panel mentoring technical sergeants into the right positions within the chaplain corps and being selected as fundraiser coordinator for the base Top 3 Association.

"I feel that as an individual, you receive talents, and I believe that you should share those talents wherever you can," she said.

Davit said he thinks Williams and the chapel will do pretty well, as Air Mobility Command is one of the largest commands in the Air Force. Voting already has happened, so the results should come through soon.