Two employees from the Operations Department took were recently recognized as NAS Whidbey Island’s 2009 supervisory and non-supervisory employees of the year. 

Veneranda “Vena” Reyes, budget analyst, was selected as the employee of the year and Don Hill III, fuels management officer, now holds the title of supervisor of the year.

Bill MacMillan, NAS airfield manager, works closely with both of the recipients on a daily basis and was instrumental in writing up their award packets.

“Hill is ‘the man’ that gets fuel to every customer of government fuel products at NAS Whidbey Island,” said MacMillan, who has been recognized twice for the same honor.

Reyes is the only budget analyst for the Operations Department, where she processed over three million dollars worth of funding throughout the year.

She advises the operations officer and MacMillan on all matters involving equipment and personnel expenses within the department.

“Reyes has her finger on every dollar that passes through the Operations Department,” said Mac-Millan.

She was also recognized for taking on additional Defense Travel Service and purchasing duties during the extended illness of a co-worker’s eight month absence.

“I really enjoy my job,” said Reyes, who has worked for the Operations for nearly five years. “The people are very nice to work with.”

She also prepared funding documents for contracts totaling over two million dollars, including the MILCON fueling project where she worked with Hill, the supervisor of the year.

Hill’s well-deserved recognition stems from his work in the Fuels Division. Due largely to his efforts, aircraft fueling operations continued seamlessly during the overhaul period of all fueling equipment where the entire process of refueling was changed.

According to the award package, the Fuels “team” was responsible for refueling of over 14,000 deliveries with an average delivery time of nine minutes. That is less than half the advertised 20-minute response time.

The average de-fuel time was 11.7 minutes, besting the contractual requirement of 60 minutes by a significant margin.

“I truly believe we have the best fueling operation in the Navy,” said Hill, who has also worked in the department for five years. “I know what we do has a direct impact on the command’s mission.”

Both Hill and Reyes will be competing with Navy Region Northwest, Naval Station Everett, Naval Base Kitsap and Naval Magazine Indian Island employees for the coveted Region awards. The awards board for this level is being held March 8.