Eight RSL Fylingdales employees have received personal commendations for outstanding service in the 2010 Military New Year Honours List under the office of Royal Air Force (RAF) Chief of Staff (Operations) Air Vice-Marshal R F Garwood CBE DFC MA RAF.   

Two separate Air Officer Commanding Team Awards were presented to the Information Technology team (Gillian Carter, Sarah Sillitoe and Neil Barker) and Systems Administration & Engineering team (Mike Coole, Pete Welburn, Lee Jackson and Jamie Fuller) in recognition of their outstanding and meritorious service to RAF Fylingdales during both routine operation and the recent spiral upgrade to the radar.  

The Information Technology (IT) team’s excellent performance and dedication led to an exemplary reaction to the ‘Conficker’ virus attacks that paralysed much of the rest of the Ministry of Defence, but left RAF Fylingdales unscathed. Furthermore, the IT team’s intervention allowed the access security system to be cleared of the virus, a task which had defeated other agencies and was outside of their responsibility.

The Systems Engineering Team’s sterling efforts during the Upgraded Early Warning Radar Project not only helped to ensure the Project’s success during both implementation and further development, but also that the impact of operations was minimised throughout.

Raytheon is greatly honoured to receive this recognition that acknowledges the company’s commitment and that of its employees to customer service excellence. Recommendations for honours and awards for acts of gallantry or for meritorious service are made by commanding officers. The commanding officer writes a citation nominating the individual, and this recommendation is then passed up the military chain of command for consideration; each submission is scrutinised by the Chief of Staff and awards are issued on merit.

A total of 16 RAF Fylingdales employees received awards in the 2010 New Years Honours List, of which eight were RSL, three RAF and five Serco. The IT team exclusively comprises RSL staff and the System Engineering team comprises four RSL engineers and two Serco staff. To have both RSL teams selected for outstanding contribution is a significant achievement, particularly as there are only 12 RSL employees at the Fylingdales site out of some 300 staff. 

This is not the first time that a Raytheon employee has received such an accolade; Mike Coole received a personal award in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2007, a commendation from the RAF Air Officer Commanding Strike Command for his 31 years exemplary service to RAF Fylingdales. 

The military awards received fall under the commendations category and also apply to civilians and contractors who work in support of the military or military operations. For more information click here http://www.operations.mod.uk/honours/honours.htm