LOUISVILLE, Ky. –
Two Airmen from the Kentucky Air National Guard have been selected as top performers nationwide in the Contingency Response community, the National Guard Bureau announced recently.
Staff Sgt. Yuri Motamedi was named Air Guard Expeditionary Operations Performer of the Year in the junior enlisted category, and Master Sgt. Darren Wiles earned the same honor for the senior enlisted ranks.
Both Airmen are assigned to the Kentucky Air Guard’s 123rd Contingency Response Group, the only fully operational GRG in the Air National Guard. Motamedi is a security forces craftsman, and Wiles is a C-130J Super Hercules loadmaster.
“These top performers highlight the excellence the Air National Guard brings to the Global Air Mobility Support System enterprise,” said Col. Donald Davenport, chief of the Mobility Operations Division at the National Guard Bureau.
Contingency response units are charged with rapidly deploying to remote locations to establish airfield operations and aerial port capability so troops and cargo can arrive via airlift. They frequently work in austere environments affected by conflict or catastrophic events and are wholly self-sufficient, bringing everything needed to stand up operations, including all-terrain forklifts, power production, satellite communications, security forces and civil engineers.
The 123rd CRG has deployed overseas multiple times in the past 15 years, including for earthquake response in Haiti, Hurricanes across the Caribbean and the Ebola crisis in West Africa.