DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- Today, members of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations chaplain corps team was recognized as the Department of the Air Force 2021 “Outstanding Small Chaplain Corps Team of the Year.”
In the last week of February, AFMAO's chaplain corps team was recognized at the Air Force District of Washington level.
The Outstanding Small Chaplain Corps Team Robert. P. Taylor Award is awarded to a team of chaplains and religious affairs Airmen who have displayed accomplishments within their unit.
“This is a Team AFMAO win,” said Col. Chip Hollinger, AFMAO commander. “I’m proud of their collective efforts to enhance our resiliency, strengthen our team, and provide the highest level of support to those we serve.”
AFMAO’s resiliency team is comprised of three chaplains, a religious affairs Airman, a mental health technician and a Military and Family Life Counselor.
“For this award, we were only able to count the chaplain corps team member contributions, but what our whole team does is even more impressive,” said Maj. Matt Knight, AFMAO senior chaplain.
According to Knight, there are three mission priorities as an AFMAO resiliency team: the dignified transfer and family care mission, mortuary team resiliency and the training mission for chaplain corps teams across the DoD. In a typical week, the resiliency team emphasizes AFMAO employee care by hosting four to six resiliency events.
“That’s a pretty high number because that’s one of our main jobs here,” said Knight. “We’re an integrated resiliency team; we get to be with the Airmen and offer a number of different opportunities.”
Knight is proud of the mission accomplished by his AFMAO team. They strive to make continuous improvements to both the AFMAO mission and the Airmen serving.
“We inherited the best resiliency program in the Air Force,” said Knight. “This award brought some recognition to the amazing work that some of our chaplains and religious affairs Airmen have done while they have been deployed here, so that’s a big win.”