TSgt. Latoria R. Ellis, contracting team lead? with the 502nd Contracting Squadron at JBSA-Lackland, Texas, is one of the Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2014. Ellis led a 25-member team that completed 86 contracts for Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center, the Air Force’s largest medical wing. She spearheaded a $2 million energy savings acquisition, retrofitting 19 buildings with solar panels, reducing the utility bill and saving the Air Force $600,000 a year. She steered a $1.9 million generator efficiency project, replacing 33 percent of defective grids in military family housing, reducing output by 14 percent, and saving the Air Force $24,000 a year. She completed 223 hours of training at the Noncommissioned Officer Academy, garnering her distinguished graduate and academic achievement awards. Ellis was named Air Education and Training Command’s NCO of the Year out of 13,039 noncommissioned officers. Air Force Magazine is shining the spotlight on each OAY in the days leading up to AFA’s Air & Space Conference that starts on Sept. 15 in National Harbor, Md. AFA will honor these airmen there. Also featured to date:
The Pentagon agency charged with building and operating U.S. spy satellites recently declassified some details about a Cold War-era surveillance program called Jumpseat—a revelation it says sheds light on the importance of satellite imaging technology and how it has advanced in the decades since.
