Department of Defense News Release (Oct. 26, 2006): DoD announces maintenance award winners.

The Department of Defense announced today the annual winners of the Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards, the Phoenix, and the Robert T. Mason Trophies recognizing excellence in field and depot-level maintenance.

The field-level maintenance awards honor military maintenance organizations for outstanding performance. The awardees--two from each category of small, medium, and large organizations--are chosen from active and reserve organizations that perform unit- or field-level maintenance. One of those organizations is singled out as the best of the best and receives the Phoenix Trophy.

2006 Phoenix Award

The 2006 winner of the Phoenix Award for field level maintenance is the 3rd Materiel Readiness Battalion, III Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF). Based in Okinawa, this battalion serves the entire III MEF. In fiscal year 2005, III MEF units deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and various training exercises and humanitarian relief efforts. Despite supporting so many diverse missions, the battalion completed more than 13,500 intermediate repair orders in an average repair cycle time of 27.8 days, resulting in III MEF having an overall ground combat equipment readiness of greater than 95 percent.

Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards

The other field-level maintenance organizations receiving Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards are: Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron Light 47, Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing for the Navy and 303rd Intelligence Squadron, Air Combat Command for the Air Force in the small category; the 297th Transportation Company, 2nd Chemical Battalion for the Army, and the 437th Maintenance Squadron/315th Maintenance Squadron (Reserve), Air Mobility Command for the Air Force in the medium category; and 3rd Maintenance Group, 3rd Wing for the Air Force in the large category.

Robert T. Mason Trophy

The Secretary of Defense Maintenance Award for depot-level maintenance, the Robert T Mason Trophy, is presented to the major organic depot-level maintenance facility that exemplifies responsive and effective depot-level support to DoD operating units. It is named after a former assistant deputy secretary of defense for maintenance policy, programs, and resources, who served as a champion for excellence in organic depot maintenance operations.

The 2006 winner of the Robert T. Mason Trophy is the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle Recapitalization Program at Red River Army Depot, Texas. Through this program, the Red River Army Depot restored nearly 2,800 primarily battle-damaged HMMWVs, exceeding planned output by 33 percent, while reducing average defects by 46 percent, shortening repair cycle time by 45 percent and lowering the average cost by 42 percent. Its workload for fiscal year 2006 consisted of 3,500 HMMWVs, a 26 percent increase over the year before.

These awards were presented Oct. 25 at the 2006 DoD Maintenance Symposium and Exhibition in Reno, Nev.