Every day excellence may seem to go unnoticed, but for one Marine his efforts were rewarded at a Boots on the Ground event board Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Yuma, September 27.

Marine Staff Sgt. Justin Ward, a member of the Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron (MALS) 13's AIRSpeed Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Site Core Team, was awarded the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) Excellence Award. The award recognizes one or more Sailors, Marines, and civilian employees each month for their contributions to Naval Aviation and for serving as positive examples of Enterprise behavior.

During this period, Ward actively led and supported 22 CPI events and projects as well as produced 894 Yellow Belts, 135 Green Belts. His green belt project, the 100-hour Performance Hover Check Rapid Improvement, identified costs and potential savings eliminating the need for the checks at MCAS Yuma. Ward showed that the inspection was no longer valid, saving $165,000 in fuel costs annually and a reduction in labor costs associated with maintenance man hours by $47,000.

"I feel like this is my niche," said Ward. "At the end of the day, seeing the benefits that the Marines get is why I got more involved in the [CPI] process. I remember when I was a junior Marine going through some of these processes that I thought were a waste, so now I'm able to give them a voice so that we can fix those things. If we can do the same job, but faster it's a win in my book."

Serving as a ground support equipment mechanic, he was inspired to join the Marine Corps after the events of 9/11. Throughout his fifteen years of service, Ward noticed that some aviation processes could use improvements and was given an opportunity to improve upon existing procedures through his position as at Yuma's AIRSpeed Fleet Assistant Program Office.

Wise presented the award stating, "It's not just one thing, it's several things that he's attacking on all fronts. From training to procedures that just don't make sense; we need to get rid of them because they are old and outdated. That's smart work and we need more [Marines] like him."

Ward, who was previously awarded the Enterprise AIRSpeed Master Gunnery Sergeant John Evancho Innovator of the year in 2014, stated that he is ready to move onto his next challenge.

"I plan to continually go out there every day and asking junior Marines what's giving them a headache," said Ward. "From there, I will look at how I can translate that into another project because we all prefer to work smarter, not harder. The hardest part is finding those new ideas."

The Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) is a cooperative partnership of naval aviation stakeholders focused on sustaining required current readiness and advancing future warfighting capabilities at best possible cost. It is comprised of Sailors, Marines, civilians, and contractors from across service branches and organizations, working together to identify and resolve readiness barriers and warfighting degraders.



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