EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- An alarm alerted firefighters of an emergency as Bruce Ehrenberger jumped into the idling fire engine. The lead firefighter and his crew sped off, with lights and siren blaring, to come to the rescue of those in need.
This is a routine day for Ehrenberger, a veteran firefighter with the 96th Civil Engineer Group, for over 19 years.
Ehrenberger earned recent recognition winning the 2017 Air Force Materiel Command Civilian Category I annual award. Ehrenberger oversees 126 emergency responses with a $1.2 million vehicle fleet and manages a four-member crew with 13,000 man hours and 480 training hours. Additionally, in 2017, he was the first responder and lead efforts to extinguish a fire in the world’s largest climatic lab valued at $500 million.
Personnel from the 96th Test Wing, including Ehrenberger, won four of the nine awards presented March 7th, at the command’s ceremony at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Ehrenberger said he was surprised to be selected because he was in a category competing with rocket scientists and PhDs. He was impressed by how the ceremony was such a big deal.
“There were TV cameras, a band and a red carpet,” he said. “They go all out. You feel like a movie star."