Making This ESGR Award Was a Little Unusual

ASHLAND, Ky. – Dec. 5, 2022 – This afternoon the Kentucky Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) presented a Patriot Award to Joshua Winn, a supervisor at AT&T.

It was more than a little unusual.

The nominator for the award was Spc. Matthew Allen, a United States Army Reservist and member of the 117th Chaplain's Detachment, who works for Winn.

Here's where it gets interesting.

Allen resides in Trenton, Ohio. 

His office is in Grayson, Kentucky.

Winn resides in Austin, Texas.

Allen's unit has its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah

ESGR is an office of the Department of Defense located in Arlington, Virginia

ESGR’s headquarters in Kentucky is in Frankfort, Kentucky.

The AT&T person who set up the meeting is in Pueblo, Colorado

The presenter, Harry Wiley, Kentucky ESGR’s state public affairs officer, resides here in Ashland.

Other AT&T management watching the presentation and applauding Winn were in Dallas.

The presentation was made over the Internet. But, it gets even more interesting, Allen is currently deployed to Kuwait!

It was certainly a special presentation, one that covered the map, and showed that AT&T’s support not only of Winn and his award, but of Allen, was widespread.

The Patriot Award reflects the efforts made to support citizen warriors through a wide range of measures including flexible schedules, time off prior to and after deployment, caring for families, and granting leaves of absence if needed. Said Allen, “Joshua has been very supportive of my current deployment and making sure I had the time I needed to get things for the deployment.”

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