The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Aug. 26 received the Omaha Trophy in the global operations category for 2008, recognizing the facility’s operational flexibility and technical imagination.
It marks the third year in a row the JSpOC was selected as a trophy recipient. One of the center’s major roles this year was Operation Burnt Frost, in which a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite was successfully intercepted.
Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, and Gary Gates, a member of the Strategic Command Consultation Committee, presented the award to Col. Richard Boltz, director of the JSpOC.
“At last year’s ceremony, I promised that we would build upon the successes of the previous year to help us achieve the goal of becoming the premier air and space operations center,” Boltz said in a press release. “I think we’ve taken significant steps to reach that goal.”
The Omaha Trophy is presented to U.S. Strategic Command units in four different categories: global operations, intercontinental ballistic missile, strategic aircraft operations, and submarine ballistic missile. Selection for each of the categories is based on formal evaluations, meritorious achievement, safety, and other factors, such as community involvement and humanitarian actions.
The award was created by the Strategic Command Consultation Committee, which first presented it to the Strategic Air Command in 1971 on behalf of the citizens of Omaha.
This article appears in Sep 3-10, 2009.
