JPED civilian earns Army-wide award Published Jan. 8, 2013 By Airman 1st Class Ashlin Federick 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Dover Air Force Base, Del. -- Nelson Delgado, an operations management specialist at the Joint Personal Effects Depot here, was recently recognized as the civilian of the year for the entire US Army Human Resources civilian workforce. Delgado is responsible for the overall operations and management of the processing of personal effects of all soldiers, sailors, Marines, Airmen and Department of Defense civilians who have been wounded or killed in action in support of Overseas Contingency Operations. Delgado was in the Army Reserve for 25 years before he retired as a master sergeant. "My last job in the military had to do with mortuary affairs, which back then was called grave registration," said Delgado. "The training and experience in the Army set me up for success to do this job." Delgado said in this job he has been able to mentor people and pass his knowledge on to others. He believes he must take care of his Airman, soldiers, Marines and contractors working with him and instill in them the desire to learn as much as they can and to pass the knowledge on to their peers. Delgado strongly believes in integrity and accountability. "You have to take the good with the bad. If you are responsible for something, and you fail, you have to take responsibility for the failure," said Delgado. "If I did something wrong, I will be the one to tell you I messed up or failed to do this job, but at the same time I will come to you if you mess up and ask what happened." Delgado takes his task of helping his customers seriously. "I do whatever it takes to make sure that the families are taken care of even if that means staying late or coming in early. It may even mean calling the mail truck and telling them I need them to come back," said Delgado. Delgado said that when he found out he won the award, he was shocked but happy. "It is an honor for me, and I am truly grateful that I got this award," said Delgado. Lt. Col. Harvey Baker, the executive officer at JPED, said Delgado runs the functional operations of the building. Delgado gives the direction and guidance on how to handle any particular issue that comes up during the day. Baker explained how Delgado controls the workflow through the building, makes adjustments when necessary, and contacts all the outside people they do business with such as the Pentagon, theater command, outside vendors, explosive ordnance disposal and Air Force operations post. "Delgado is an outstanding individual and the type of person every supervisor wishes they had," said Baker. "He takes initiative and goes beyond what is required of him. He also unselfishly gives his time and effort before, during and after duty hours." Over the past year and a half Delgado was responsible for a big part of the transition plan in implementation when they moved to Dover AFB from Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., said Baker. Delgado designed a lot of the procedures and systems that were put in place to stand up the new facility. Delgado personally monitored, supervised and transferred 185 cases of personal effects during the critical transition without any incident or loss. "I manage the process in the warehouse to ensure that the personal effects of our fallen service members and wounded warriors get back to their families in a timely manner," said Delgado. Delgado facilitated the split operations when JPED was operating out of Aberdeen and Dover at the same time. He was responsible for the operation in Dover at the time. He has also authored all of the JPED standard operating procedures for operation. The award winner has managed the workforce through a difficult transition in contract turnover. He trained a large number of new personnel and kept the operation going. "When we went through our surge, during the summer months, he spent hours after duty organizing, planning and setting up processing for the civilian workforce," said Baker. Delgado has been involved in a lot of operations over the last 10 years of war such as being part of the recovery effort at the Pentagon after 9/11. Delgado responded and was on the ground taking care of the remains and personal effects of the victims. Baker said this event was the genesis of the creation of JPED. The colonel said JPED is lucky to have a person of Delgado's caliber as part of their organization. "I wish I had ten more of him because that would make my job a lot easier," said Baker.