Azores Detachment earns maintenance trophy from the Air Force.

Military Traffic Management Command Detachment Azores, recognized for caring for its vehicles, won the Lajes Field Annual "Best Vehicle Care Program" for a Medium-sized unit for 2002. The senior Portuguese civilian, Xavier Esteves, accepted the trophy for the detachment.

The trophy represents the dedicated efforts of all the employees who care for the variety of vehicles used for port operations. They range from pickup trucks to 50-thousand-pound forklifts.

The Detachment is responsible for caring for ten vehicles in a very hostile environment where salt spray and humidity combine to attack metal surfaces. Through the dedication and hard work of the six vehicle operators, under the direction of Reginaldo Borges, a strict program for caring for vehicles is followed. Key to the program is the simple act of regularly rinsing off the vehicles with fresh water, something that is not quite as simple when you are cleaning a rough terrain container handler weighing almost 113,000 pounds.

Detachment Azores is responsible for processing all incoming and outgoing ocean freight for Lajes Field, moving some 3,600 containers during 2002 and more than 30,000 measurement tons of cargo. The detachment also processes incoming and outgoing privately owned vehicles, as well as performing the inland transportation for ocean freight.

Lajes Field is located on Terceira Island in the Azores, about 850 miles west of Lisbon and 2,200 miles east of Norfolk.