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Airman earns award

  • Published
  • By Capt. Toni Tones
  • 455 AEW/PA
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan --  For one Airman, notification he earned an annual award came while deployed to Southwest Asia.
Staff Sgt. Matthew J. Meuser was recently notified he earned the title as the 2007 Kentucky Air National Guard Airman of the Year.
"I just go out and do my job," was the modest response from Meuser when asked about his accomplishment.
Meuser is an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team member currently deployed to the 755th Air Expeditionary Group here. Meuser volunteered for the deployment to replace a fellow Airman who was injured and had to return home.
"I wasn't surprised to hear he had won," said Capt. David Troxell, Chief, 755th AEG EOD. "Since he arrived, his attitude has been, 'I will do what you want me to do.'"
A couple highlights that earned Meuser the 2007 Kentucky ANG Airman of the Year include performing hazardous-device countermeasure duties with the U.S. Secret Service during a President of the United States visit to Indiana and contributing to the safety of the Queen of England as well as 150,000 civilians as a member of the EOD team assigned to the 133rd Kentucky Derby.
"He epitomizes the type of people we are looking for in EOD," said Troxell.
Meuser retrained into EOD with the Kentucky ANG in December, 2003 after serving five years as an F-16 crew chief in the Indiana ANG.
When he is not driving more than 200 miles to perform his duties in the Kentucky ANG, Meuser works as an unexploded ordnance technician with a Seattle-based company performing range clearances and certifying ordnance-contaminated land clean for development and construction.