419th staff sergeant selected A1 Personnel Airman of the Year

  • Published
  • By Mary Lou Gorny
  • Hilltop Times Editor
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  Staff Sgt. Scott Gatewood, Readiness Chief in the 419th Force Support Squadron, doesn't seem to suffer from an identity crisis. The Air Reserve Component Personnel Airman of the Year serves in many ways on and off duty.

When prodded, he responded with some of the many "hats" he has taken on as part of his duties on base: "I'm unit safety (representative). I'm the emergency management monitor, antiterrorism assistant, the assistant to the building custodian, the records manager for my section, the equipment custodian and the Self-Aid Buddy Care instructor and monitor for the 419th FFS/MSG."

Also serving as a volunteer firefighter for South Weber, he helps out as a goalie coach for his kids hockey team and assists the soccer coach. He also plays goalie for the adult league at the Ogden Ice Sheet.

"He's kind of our go-to guy," said Senior Master Sgt. Tray Carpenter, 419th FSS, who has been Gatewood's supervisor for three years. "He has all the additional duties. If anything comes up, he's the first to volunteer."

"I came in (to the Air Force Reserve) at 35 so I'm more of a mature member," explained Gatewood. "I've worked a lot of different sections in the civilian sector (where) I ran programs by myself all the time and I attribute that to that's how the Air Force worked as well -- you were given a tasking, you went out and accomplished that task and I really grasp the Air Force 'Core Values' -- 'Excellence in All You Do.'ΓΆΓΆ"

Gatewood said he believes Maj. Sarah Mangahas, who worked previously with him nominated him for the honor, because he was holding down three positions at once for the time period he was nominated.

"I was the chief of Career Enhancement and chief of customer service and I really just basically did my job every day," he said. "Career Enhancement actually has not only a chief, but an assistant chief, so I was filling in both slots and I had to work with all the Command Support staff (on base)," he said.

Gatewood attributed the solid people he worked with for his success. "We were approximately 40 percent manned," he said of the time period involved.

"A lot of it, you go through and you read the AFIs and you see what's in your Unit Compliance Inspection -- your inspections and your compliances -- and you get a good strong sense of what needs to happen," he said. "At the same time, there's always ways you can better the process. There's new technology out there that would make it easier for everybody to share the information.

"I think that's important. If you like to hoard the information and then you leave (move on) -- pretty much (the) whole process goes away. But if you share it and try to (make it) uniform throughout your whole organization you've got a better running system," Gatewood said.

The Air Reserve Technician, or ART, serves in the same position during normal hours that he would on his one weekend a month.

"I do it Monday through Friday, so those warriors that come in are taken care of -- they don't have to try to catch up on the daily responsibilities and they can concentrate more on the training," he said.

He worked on wing-wide Enlisted Performance Reports and Officer Performance Reports, PEP, Deserving Airmen and other programs to make sure that Air Force Reserve personnel got the chance for promotion and extra stripes.

"I came in as a medic and I really love helping people," Gatewood said.

"Everyone that's here is in the same boat. We as a group have a very good core understanding that we need to work together. Teamwork is instilled from the up-down and back and forth," Gatewood said. "Especially last year with the OREs, preparing for the ORI ... there's no way that one person could do everything."

Said Carpenter of Gatewood's performance, "He's that one that no matter what section he's in or what's going on, he's the first to step up and say, 'Hey, do you need help? Let me jump in and help you out,' regardless of what his workload is."

For his part, Gatewood credits the solid performance of the personnel he works with and the teamwork of his squadron.

Carpenter added, "He definitely works above his rank -- he's far beyond his years militarily -- some of the things that he accomplishes are what you would expect a senior NCO to accomplish -- not a brand new NCO."