The award was presented to Babish in a ceremony presided by Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) commander Lt. Gen. Robert McMurry at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force Wednesday.
This award has to be personally approved and signed by the secretary of the Air Force.
The secretary established the award to recognize an individual or group for “exceptionally meritorious service of major significance to the Air Force in the performance of duties in a manner clearly exceptional to others,” the Air Force said.
It is the highest recognition granted to an individual or group within the Air Force.
“Chuck is a national treasure and renowned across the Department of Defense and industry,” said Thomas Fischer, a member of the Senior Executive Service and director of the AFLCMC Engineering Directorate, in nominating Babish for the award.
Babish is recognized for more than 30 years of engineering work, including as an investigator for the Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board, an Air Force statement said.
The service also said: “Babish is internationally recognized for standardizing structural risk analysis methods used to resolve safety-of-flight structural issues in aging aircraft worldwide. He developed and implemented methodologies that resulted in extending the service life of 3,100 Air Force aircraft, saving the Air Force over $20 billion in aircraft replacement costs.”
He developed the methods used by engineers to establish service life limits that combines engineering analyses, lab tests, and in-service operational experience, the Air Force added.
The release went on: “These limits helped achieve the Air Force aircraft safety record of no losses due to structural failure associated with airworthiness efforts during the last 11 years of flight operations, totaling 19 million flight hours.”
“I am overwhelmed to receive this honor,” the Air Force quoted Babish as saying. “I am extremely proud of the over 400 Air Force aircraft structures engineers I get to work with every day ensuring structural safety and operational readiness of the 5,000 Air Force aircraft.”
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