4 from 36th win AF level awards Published Dec. 5, 2006 By Staff Sgt. Samuel King Jr. 53d Wing Public Affairs EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Four winners out of 12 Air Force level categories, equals ... a big victory for the 36th Electronic Warfare Squadron. The 36th EWS took one-third of the Air Force level scientist and engineer awards this year, when Summer Leim, Peggy Wisdom, John Crane and James Hurst, each won in their respective categories. "It's absolutely fitting for this level of recognition for the stellar performance of our engineers and scientists," said Lt. Col. John Arnold, 36th EWS commander. "We are the center of excellence for electronic warfare and it shows when troops from our squadron win these prestigious awards."Summer Leim, Junior Civilian Engineer "I have never won an award at this level and I am honored," said Mrs. Leim. Mrs. Leim, who enjoys running in her spare time, has worked with the 53d Wing for more than two years. As an F-16 Radar Warning Receiver engineer, she programs, verifies and releases mission data software that ensures pilots have adequate threat warnings. Mrs. Leim helped author F-16 314-point text matrix that focused testing and cut analysis time by 30 percent.John Crane, Mid-Career Civilian Engineer "I appreciate the recognition, I've never won an individual Air Force award, but I'm only one of many contributors to the successes we achieved with the B-1B program," said Mr. Crane. Mr. Crane, who also enjoys water sports and classic cars, has spent 33 years working with the military as an aviator and engineer. His last 15 years have been with the 53d. His job as a B-1B defensive systems engineer is to provide mission data, test and technical aircrew support for B-1B defensive systems. A big accomplishment for Mr. Crane was the successful integrated flight, ground and lab tests of new system hardware and software upgrades which improved the capabilities of the defensive system.Peggy Wisdom, Junior Civilian Scientist "The fact that our leadership thinks so highly of us is definitely appreciated," said Mrs. Wisdom, no stranger to Air Force level awards winning four individual and two team awards prior to this. "I absolutely love my job and get rewarded every day, but the recognition at this level is pretty amazing and humbling." Mrs. Wisdom stays busy outside of the 36th vaults by stamping, scrapbooking, crochet, reading, music, pistol/rifle marksmanship and shotgunning. As a 36th operations analyst, Mrs. Wisdom works with the engineers to design, execute, and analyze EW tests. "I rely on them to educate me about the various modes and peculiarities for each platform we fly and for each threat we test against," said Mrs. Wisdom, who's been with the wing for five years and at Eglin for 15 years. "Then we prioritize and determine what we'll actually test. After we've executed the test, we reduce the data and analyze it. The engineers and OAs work together as a team throughout the entire process to make sure the results tell the story and will have value to the warfighter." One of the many accomplishments that garnered her the award was when she worked as the lead analyst for Project Pontiff, a multi-national, multi-aircraft Foreign Materiel Exploitation, which incorporated data from more than 350 lab hours and several thousand test runs. James Hurst, Senior Civilian Engineer "I felt like they got the wrong name" said Mr. Hurst, who had never won an Air Force level award before. "I hope it will add to our squadron's ability to affect positive change to improve the Air Force." Mr. Hurst lists "exploiting RF base weapon systems" as a hobby, but also enjoys activities in the outdoors. He has been with the 53d off-and-on for 17 years. His expertise is used to get effective jamming programming into ALQ 184/131 pods to be used by F-16s and A-10s. His biggest accomplishment was expanding F-16 and A-10 EW capabilities with old hardware during manpower reductions with limited resources.