Joint Task Force-Bravo supports President's visit in El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama shake hands with awaiting children who greeted them upon their arrival in El Salvador March 22. Joint Task Force-Bravo supported preparation efforts for the arrival providing a military working dog and dog handler, air stairs, refueling personnel, a mobile surgical team and other supporting personnel for the event. While speaking in El Salvador, the president announced a new $200 million partnership with El Salvador to combat drug wars, strengthen courts and civil society groups to keep young people from turning to drugs and crime. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Kimberly Rae Moore)

Keesler wins 3 first-place awards in AETC’s 2011 Media Contest

Staff Sgt. Kimberly Moore and Airman 1st Class Heather Heiney, 81st Training Wing Public Affairs, pose for a photo at Wall Studio, Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., Feb. 7, 2012. Moore took top honors in the Air Education and Training Command’s 2011 Media Contest news photo category. Heiney is AETC’s print journalist of the year and also won first place in the commentary category. (U.S. Air Force photo by Adam Bond)

Keesler wins 3 first-place awards in AETC's 2011 Media Contest

Published Feb. 8, 2012
By Susan Griggs
81st Tranining Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- The 81st Training Wing Public Affairs Office claimed three first-place awards in Air Education and Training Command's 2011 Media Contest.

Airman 1st Class Heather Heiney and Staff Sgt. Kimberly Moore now compete for Air Force honors.

Heiney is AETC's print journalist of the year and also won first place in the commentary category. Moore took top honors in the news photo category.

Keesler is the first duty station for Heiney, a public affairs specialist who arrived in August 2010. After only four months on the job, she was selected as AETC's outstanding new writer, along with second place in the commentary category and third place in the photojournalism category.

Her print journalist submission for 2011 included five stories. "Air Force facilitates passionate pursuit of learning" won the commentary category. Her other four stories included a feature about Col. Glen Downing, 81st Training Wing commander, and the challenges he's faced since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; a retirement story about Chief Master Sgt. Billy Abbott, 81st Training Group; a sports feature about World War II veteran Bernard Moyer Sr., who bowls at Gaudé Lanes; and a feature about a treeplanting honoring longtime Keesler Spouses Club member Cathy Varble on her 80th birthday.

Moore, noncommissioned officer in charge of public affairs, joined the Air Force in 2005 and arrived at Keesler in 2009 after a deployment to Djibouti the previous year.

Her winning photo of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama was taken in El Salvador last March while serving a six-month deployment to Honduras in support of Joint Task Force-Bravo.

While stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., she served as editor of the base newspaper before becoming airman in charge of community relations. She won third place in Air Combat Command's outstanding public affairs airman competition in 2006. The following year, she earned second place awards in the series and combat documentation categories and third place in the news photo category in ACC's media contest.

Moore took second place in the photojournalism category of AETC's 2009 media competition for a feature on Keesler's Airman Leadership School