First Knight Published Oct. 6, 2008 Detachment 1, 21st Operations Group PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Mr. Victor Barela was selected for this week's First Knight award. This award is designed to recognize outstanding Airmen each week for the work they do every day. Name: Mr. Victor Barela Unit: Detachment 1, 21st Operations Group Duty Title: Operations Superintendent Hometown: Las Cruces, N.M . Time in Service: 25 years (Mr. Barela is a contractor performing the operations and maintenance of the Air Force's Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) system) Hobbies: Golf, Racquetball Favorite Music: Salsa Last good book read: "Measure of a Man" by Gene Getz How has working for the Air Force impacted your life?: Working for the AF has impacted my life by providing a sense of importance, order and a means for my family's livelihood. If you were Secretary of the Air Force for one day, how would you change the Air Force?: If I was the SecAF, I am not sure I could change the AF in a day, but I would persist to disseminate the vision of our existence to each of our members. What's your favorite thing about being a part of the Air Force team?: My favorite thing about being a part of the AF team is being that small member of the whole body that protects our country. Why selected: "Our mission at GEODSS is to detect, track, identify and report on all deep space objects within our field of view. I chose Mr. Barela because he is always creating new tactics and techniques to increase our system's capabilities. As the Operations superintendent, his efforts directly resulted in Det 1 tracking an average of 2.4 million observations annually and providing 29 percent of all deep-space observations for the Space Surveillance Network. He is an integral member of the team, and we are all proud of him" - Capt. Todd E. Tracy, Detachment 1 commander