353rd SOG honors annual award winners Published March 4, 2013 By 353rd Special Operations Group KADENA AIR BASE, Japan -- Officials from the 353rd Special Operations Group honored the group's top Airmen during its 2012 Annual Awards Luncheon here Jan 14. The individual award winners are: Airman of the Year Senior Airman Matthew Winkeleer, 320th Special Tactics Squadron Noncommissioned Officer of the Year Tech. Sgt. Clayton Slater, 17th Special Operations Squadron Senior Noncommissioned Officer of the Year Master Sgt. Jeremy Tygrett, 1st Special Operations Squadron First Sergeant of the Year Master Sgt. Jeremy Johnson, 353rd Special Operations Maintenance Squadron Company Grade Officer of the Year Capt. Randall Harvey, 320th STS Civilian of the Year, Category I Dawn Abistado, 353rd Special Operations Support Squadron Civilian of the Year, Category II David Sterle, 353rd SOSS Civilian of the Year, Category III Mark Alden, 353rd SOSS The 353 SOG annual awards recipients went on to compete for the Partner Unit Group annual award and those winners went on to compete for the Team Kadena Award. The Team Kadena annual award banquet was held Feb. 9. Abistado, Sterle, Alden, Tygrett and Harvey claimed the Partner Group annual award in their category and Alden and Harvey also went on to claim the Team Kadena annual award in their category.