MINOT AIR FORCE BASE – A technical sergeant who served at Minot Air Force Base for the past four years is the recipient of one of the U.S. Air Force’s most prestigious awards, the Lance P. Sijan USAF Leadership Award.

Tech. Sgt. Jeffery Fitzgerald learned he was selected for the award during a going away event held for him at Minot Air Force Base earlier this month when an email from Gen. Timothy Ray, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, was read informing him of his selection for the award. Leadership from the 91st Missile Wing was on hand when Fitzgerald was notified he had been selected for the award.

“I was pretty ecstatic at that point to find out with all my friends and family that was there for my going away,” Fitzgerald said, according to an interview with Minot AFB Public Affairs on Dec. 12.

The Sijan Award was created in 1981 to recognize individuals who have demonstrated the highest qualities of leadership in their jobs and their lives. The award is named for Air Force Capt. Lance P. Sijan, a fighter pilot who died while a prisoner of war in Vietnam. On March 4, 1976, Sijan posthumously received the Medal of Honor, the highest military award in the U.S. He was the first U.S. Air Force Academy graduate to receive the award.

Fitzgerald has been the noncommissioned officer/flight chief of the Tactical Response Force for the 91st Security Forces Group at Minot AFB. He has a new assignment at Offutt AFB, Neb., and left Minot AFB on Dec. 13.

Fitzgerald said he has wanted to receive the Sijan Award since he was an airman first class. At that time he saw a military member of the same rank he now is receive it. At the time he did not know a great deal about the award but researched it.

Of what he did to receive the award, Fitzgerald replied, “I just felt like I did my job.”

He noted a time during his career that stands out in his mind. “I do remember the feeling I got of completeness of helping someone out was when I was standing in for first sergeant duty. An airman came to see me with an issue on a family member committing suicide and the help that I gave that individual – from the 24 to 36 hours it took to get them on a plane and back home with their family and friends and then that airman coming back and sitting down with me and telling me ‘thank you’ from the bottom of their heart… That feeling of helping someone who really needed help at the time was the biggest thing that stands out to me if you were to ask me right now the biggest leadership impact I would have on an airman.”

Fitzgerald said to him to be a leader is “specifically, I feel like you have to be a good follower.”

He said there’s different steps to being a leader. “You have to be an all-encompassing leader, of course. So just knowing when to step up and when to actually follow I feel like is a good leadership trait.

“A lot of people just think that leadership entails you always stepping up or you always having something to say or you always have the input on something. I don’t necessarily think that makes a good leader. I think what makes a good leader is knowing when they have something to bring to the table and when they know how to let someone else bring something else to the table and sitting back and listening. Whatever the case may be – whether you’re in a combat situation, whether you’re in a briefing room – it doesn’t matter. Supporting your team in any sense of way, listening to everybody’s input, I just find that there’s different traits that comes along with leadership. But if there’s one thing if I had to pinpoint would be to be a good follower as well,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald will move up in rank to master sergeant on Jan. 1, 2020.

Fitzgerald said his time at Minot has taught him many lessons and been outstanding for his career. “There’s so many opportunities at Minot that you just can’t help be a part of. It’s not hard to jump into the arena here and then become part of something or to lead something or to follow on something or just help out with something.”

He pointed out, “I know my name’s going to be on it (the award) but I really, really wish that I could have everybody’s name (on it) that has impacted me in any way. This award is not just for me. It’s for all my airmen below, all my peers, all my mentors above and the leaders ahead of me. This award wouldn’t be possible without all of those encompassing factors in my life. Thank you to everybody else that has helped me get to this point.”