JANUARY 30, 2026 – The Department of War announced the winners of the 2025 Secretary of War Maintenance Awards last week at the department’s annual Maintenance Awards Banquet, January 22. The awards are presented annually to recognize outstanding achievements in weapon systems and military equipment maintenance.
The Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper Award for Software Maintenance Excellence recognizes the top organic software activity that, through its mission accomplishments, provided extraordinary capability for operational units supported. The award is named after RDML Grace Hopper, a pioneer of computer programming who popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages. This year’s winner is the United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center.
The Department also selected the Sustainment Training, Advice, and Assistance of Foreign Military Forces Awards. The awards recognize teams or organizations that have excelled at providing training, advice, and assistance to the militaries of developing countries as part of U.S. foreign policy goals. In the Ministerial Category, the winner is the 31st Maintenance Group Country Teams from Aviano Air Base, Italy. The operational category winner of this year’s award is the Ukraine Security Assistance Group J-4 staff assigned to United States Army Europe and Africa.
The Robert T. Mason Award for Depot Maintenance Excellence recognizes exceptional quality and achievement in Department of War depot-level maintenance programs. It is awarded for outstanding mission accomplishment, effective support to warfighters, and innovative logistics processes. This award commemorates Robert T. Mason, a former Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Maintenance Policy, Programs and Resources, who championed the Department’s depot-level maintenance program. The F-16 Depot Maintenance Team from the 573rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Ogden Air Logistics Complex is this year’s recipient.
Six field-level award winners were selected in three categories: small, medium, and large. The small category winners are the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron SEVEN; and the 860th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Travis Air Force Base, California. Winners from the medium category included 1st Maintenance Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California; and Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center, United States 5th and 6th Fleets, Naples, Italy. Large category winners were the 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment stationed at Kadena Air Base, Japan; and the 4th Maintenance Group, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
From the six field-level winners, only one is selected as this year’s recipient of the highly coveted Phoenix Award. Phoenix Award winners are considered the best of the best and held in very high esteem as the top-performing field-level maintenance unit in the Department. The 2025 Phoenix Award winner is 1st Maintenance Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group. The award was announced at the annual DoW Maintenance Awards Banquet on January 22. Units were formally presented their awards during a ceremony at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, AZ, in conjunction with the annual DoW Maintenance Symposium.
To learn more about the Secretary of War Maintenance Awards and the DoW Maintenance Symposium, you can visit www.sae.org/dow.