Air Force honors elite at Nellis

Dick Benoit

Thursday, April 6, 2000 | 10:10 a.m.

The local chapter of the Air Force Association honored five members of the elite Nellis Air Force Base honor guard team last week at its annual "Honor the Honor Guard" luncheon.

Senior Airman Darryl Balch was named Honor Guard Rookie of the Year, Senior Airman Cecelia Bautista was named Honor Guard Airman of the Year and Senior Airman Michael Brown was named Honor Guard Trainer of the Year. Airman Andrew Crabtree and Master Sgt. Darlene Robertson were recognized as Honor Guard Members of the Year.

Last year the Nellis Honor Guard performed 832 ceremonies in Southern Nevada. The unit presented final military honors for Nevada veterans and military members at 622 funerals. It performed at 122 military functions and served as color guard for 87 local community events, several of which were nationally televised.

Representatives from several veterans organizations, local funeral homes and mortuaries attended the luncheon. Gov. Kenny Guinn issued a proclamation declaring the day as Nellis Honor Guard Day in Nevada.

Durango wins JROTC drill meet: The Durango High School Air Force JROTC took the top spot at the Clark County School District Drill Championships last week at Cashman Center. Durango received 2,635 out of a possible 2,970 points in the competition to take the championship.

Honors in the individual events went to Basic High School Marine JROTC for the color guard competition, Clark High School Navy JROTC for unarmed drill, Durango for armed drill and Clark for mass drill down.

Drill Commander honors went to Joseph Cisneros of Clark for leading his color guard team, Ivey Adelman of Durango in unarmed drill and Jason Jaramillo of Durango in armed drill.

Ceslie Torres of Clark won first place in the mass drill down, an elimination event that following drill orders. Second place went to Shweta Shrivastava of Rancho and third place to Charles Foster of Durango.

First place in the rifle twirl went to Nate Lindenbach of Eldorado. Second place went to Matthew Harper of Western and third place to Josue Medrano of Clark.

IN BRIEF

Dick Benoit covers individual and unit accomplishments of Southern Nevadans serving in the active duty and reserve armed forces. He can be reached at (702) 641-8664.