Exciting News!!!

This morning during quarters at the station, Josh recieved the Sailor of the Quarter award!

You are commended for your performance of duty during the first quarter of
the fiscal year 2008 and are hereby designated the Sailor of the Quarter for
USCG Station BI. During this period, your superb performance contributed
significantly to the outstanding accomplishments of this command.
As a member of Station BI Engineering Department, you demonstrated
outstanding initiative and teamwork as you eagerly completed a multitude of work
assignments. During your duty periods you completed over 105 hours of
preventative maintenance on Station BI's five ready boats and an additional 20
hours of extensive maintenance and winterization of the three Defender "A" Class
boats that were recently surveyed and transferred to District Nine. You
assisted in the completion of multiple law enforcement and security boardings,
compiling over 112 underway hours in the process, and doing your part to ensure
that the boating community was in compliance with all applicable federal laws
and regulations. Your hard work and dedication to duty while assisting
with repairs on the UTB's engine oil cooler ensured minimal down time for a key
asset. Your effort on this repair helped to get the UTB operational prior
to below freezing weather when the SPC-LE's had to be pulled out of the
water. If the UTB had not been repaired timely this unit would have been
left with no resource to respond to calls for assistance or law enforcement
cases. You also showed your resourcefulness and dependability as an
engineer when the UTB experienced a loss of steering casualty, you expedited the
needed repairs to a broken throttle cable while underway; thus keeping the unit's
UTB in ready status as well as allowing the boat crew to return to the unit
timely and safely.
During this quarter you have also been instrumental in a number of planned
station improvement projects. You assisted your fellow engineers while
installing touch-less soap dispensers and hand dryers in washrooms throughout
the building. This modernization of heads will help to decrease bacteria
on surfaces, save the station money in paper towels, and help the environment by
limiting paper waste. During another building upgrade, you helped in the
total renovation of the communications watch bay.
This room was in serious need for repairs and modernization in order to
operate more smoothly and efficiently. Your hard work was key in the
completion of the project within a strict time frame and with professional
results.
I commend you for your outstanding work ethic and superb performance of
duty. Enjoy your 72 Hour liberty pass, parking space, savings bond, and
personalized engraved knife. Your name will be proudly displayed on the
Station's "Sailor of the Quarter" plaque as a reminder for the entire crew of
the hard work and example you have set this past quarter.

I'm so proud of him! This afternoon we went out to celebrate a little. We did a little shopping and ate at the only good mexican restaurant up here (On the Border) and had some fantastic chicken fajitas and quesadillas.

We'll get pictures up of his awards when they're availiable. In the meantime, here's his bootcamp graduation picture because he just looks so handsome.