Aircraft Maintainers win Clouse Trophy Published March 25, 2010 By Chief Master Sgt. Daniel Willers 452nd Maintenance Group MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. -- The Airmen of the 452nd Maintenance Group at March ARB excelled in 2009 and their efforts were rewarded recently when they earned the coveted Fourth Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Clouse Trophy. The Clouse Trophy is given each year to the aircraft maintenance organization that achieves the highest standards in safety, mission support, demonstrated ingenuity, mission accomplishments and maintenance excellence. The award is named after Chief Master Sergeant James Clouse, who was a member of the Fourth Air Force staff in the early 1980s, when the award was being developed. He was known as a person who ensured things were done right and as someone who stepped up to tackle the toughest challenges. The 452nd Maintenance Group believes strongly in these same tenets. In a group maintaining two separate weapon systems, heavy flying commitments and numerous deployments, tough challenges have become part of normal day-to-day business. The group attributes its success not just to their hard work, but also to the great ideas of its people. The group commander has fostered a culture where ideas are freely shared and quickly implemented. This is achieved through town hall meetings where the workers have direct communication with the commander and where the ideas have produced exceptional results. "I feel it's important to empower the troops to provide innovative ideas that help us to achieve our goals," said Col. Robert Stormes, 452nd Maintenance Group commander. These ideas have helped the group to fly a remarkable 4007.9 hours on the KC-135 and 7529.3 on the C-17 while achieving an 85.5 and 90.0 percent, respectively, mission capable rate in 2009. The maintenance group is committed to its continual growth. By winning the Clouse Trophy, it has acted as a vector check to validate their heading and as a foreshadowing of the great things to come. Tech. Sgt. Doug Hays, 434th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs at Grissom Air Reserve Base contributed to this story.