JBER civil engineers garner high honors for deployed service

by Air Force Staff Sgt. Blake Mize
JBER Public Affairs

2/25/2014 - JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska  -- The 673d Civil Engineer Group recognized three Airmen Feb. 19 for exceptionally meritorious service in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

During an early-morning ceremony on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Air Force Col. Anthony Ramage, 673d CEG commander, presented Air Force 1st Lt. Josef Kallevig, 673d CEG executive officer, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Scott Rice, 673d Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance technician, Bronze Star Medals and Senior Airman Andres Fossi, 673d Civil Engineer Squadron engineer technician, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.

The three civil engineers distinguished themselves while on separate deployments to Afghanistan during 2012 and 2013.

While deployed, Kallevig was handpicked to be the officer in charge of Regional Training Center-Herat and was responsible for the safety and accountability of 120 U.S., coalition and civilians at an Afghan National Police training center. He was also the Infrastructure Transition Advisory Group site leader at Regional Support Center-West. According to his BSM citation, Kallevig's leadership was instrumental to the success of RC-West.

"Like so many of our fellow Air Force engineers, this deployment asked us to expand on our skill sets and take on new challenges," Kallevig, of Sidney, Mont., said. "I am truly proud of the progress we made during the deployment and how well we represented the engineers in our command."

During his time in Afghanistan, Rice, from Boise, Idaho, served as an EOD team leader on more than 60 EOD missions and completed 16 post-blast analyses. He led multiple demolition operations, destroying more than 7,000 pieces of foreign unexploded ordnance and eliminating 7,272 unserviceable U.S. military munitions.

Among his many responsibilities while in Afghanistan, Fossi, who was an airman first class at the time of his deployment, managed 12 Afghan interpreters who transitioned mission-critical documents from English to Dari and vice versa. He was responsible for the translation of more than 500 documents, including military-related technical manuals, laws, government relations, engineering policies, technical specifications and legal documents.

"I wasn't doing those things to get something out of it," Fossi, a Hackensack, N.J., native, said. "The way I see it, I was just doing my job. So it feels good to get the recognition and know the things I did actually mattered."

According to the Air Force Personnel Center, the Bronze Star Medal is awarded to those in any branch of the military who, while serving in any capacity with the armed forces of the United States, distinguished themselves by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, in connection with military operations against an armed enemy.

The Defense Meritorious Service Medal is awarded for non-combat meritorious achievement or service that is incontestably exceptional and of magnitude that clearly places the individual above his peers while serving in one of the assignments for which the medal has been designated.