Kentucky National Guardsman receives leadership award

VHV By Capt. Andi Hahn, 149^th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade Public Affairs Officer [caption id="attachment_5026" align="alignleft" width="112" caption="Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Boccuzzi, 149th Signal Co., receives a leadership award at the Signal Senior Leaders Course at Fort Gordon, Ga., Dec. 15. (photo courtesy of Fort Gordon NCO Academy)"] LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Kentucky National Guard Sgt. 1^st Class Joseph Boccuzzi, 149^th Signal Co., received a leadership award at the Signal Senior Leaders Course at Fort Gordon, Ga., Dec. 15. Not only was Boccuzzi the only National Guard Soldier who attended the course, but he was appointed by his Active Duty peers as the class leader and given the Profession of Arms Award at the SLC awards ceremony. Boccuzzi was selected because of his proficient tactical and technical knowledge, leadership skills and physical fitness. “I am honored,” Boccuzzi said of the award and the experience overall. “I wanted to prove a point to my Active Duty peers that the Army National Guard is just as tactically and technically skilled, if not better than other components of the military,” he said. His instructors said that as a National Guard Soldier competing for this award at an AD school shows that the Guard is at the same level of their AD counterparts. “The best part is when you are receiving the award and you hear ‘Sgt. 1^st Class Boccuzzi from – not  101^st Airborne Division or 82^nd Airborne Division, but the Kentucky Army National Guard,” said Boccuzzi. “It felt great,” he said.