[AT YOUR SERVICE]
FOR THE PAST 3-1/2 YEARS, Hickam Air Force Base Senior Airman Jennifer Lindstrom has been able to maintain a near-perfect 4.0 GPA while working to maintain the base's environmental and health qualitative testing programs. Outstanding airman
juggles work, school,
volunteering[TAKING NOTICE]
By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinThat pursuit has resulted in Lindstrom, 22, being named the Air Force's outstanding bioenvironmental engineering airman of the year.
She describes her specialty as being akin to "OSHA for the Air Force."
"We ensure that the workplace and the environment are safe for the workers," said Lindstrom, who is eying a career in medicine, specializing in pediatric oncology.
"I have done a lot of volunteer work with children who have had cancer," said Lindstrom, who is from Walnut Creek, Calif., "and that experience makes me want to go into that field."
Her goal has always been medicine. That is why she chose the Air Force, hoping it would give her the opportunity to pursue that dream.
Besides carrying a full load at Hawaii Pacific University, Lindstrom also finds time to do volunteer work at Nimitz Elementary School, reading to the kindergarten class and staffing the school's career fairs.
Part of her daily job called for ensuring that the gas masks used by more than 600 deploying Hickam airmen were properly maintained. She also had the task of identifying and correcting numerous discrepancies in the ventilation systems on the base.
Before being chosen as the best bioenvironmental engineer in the Air Force, Lindstrom was selected airman of the quarter twice during the past three years.
This year, she also was selected as the 15th Medical Group airman of the year.
She and her husband, who attends Honolulu Community College, are expecting their first child this summer.
Moving up
Camp Smith: Air Force Col. Roy Worden, a 1976 U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, has been nominated for the appointment to brigadier general.
Worden has been at Camp Smith since January 2000, first serving as executive assistant to Adm. Dennis Blair, Pacific Forces commander. He is now U.S. Pacific Command deputy for joint experimentation.
Other recent promotions include:
Kaneohe Bay: Cmdr. Joseph Rixey assumed command of Special Projects Patrol Squadron from Cmdr. Irvin Bough.
Wahiawa: Maj. Keith Tamashiro will take command Saturday of the 487th Field Artillery Battalion, Hawaii Army National Guard.
Gregg K. Kakesako can be reached by phone at 294-4075
or by e-mail at gkakesako@starbulletin.com.