mark, and stepmother teresa. [applause] lieutenant colonel mason doolan and his wife are here to support airman hamilton. [applause] lieutenant colonel doolan was a special tactical squadron commander and had the foresight to nominate john for this award so thank you. both of you represent the values of honor and integrity we hold so dear. senior airman john c hamilton, a pararescue man, distinctions up when he displayed remarkable courage and critical life-saving medical skills during an august 14, 2013 firefight in afghanistan. senior airman hamilton acted as a rescue and battlefield trauma specialist for an elite army special forces team during 13 high risk combat missions in afghanistan.

while assaulting a known hakani network sanctuary, they were pinned down by heavy fire and his bravery and medical expertise help save the life of a wounded comrade during the four-hour firefight and that proved decisive in preventing his small unit from being overrun. senior airmen hamilton who enlisted in the air force in 2009, had been assigned to the 23rd special tactics squadron since 2012 and holds combat diver, freefall, and static line qualifications and is nationally certified paramedic. his dedicated service earned him an air force achievement medal and his accomplishments reflect great credit upon himself and the united states air force. ladies and gentlemen, i am pleased to present the 2014 u.s. -- uso airman of the year,

senior airman john c hamilton. [applause] ♪ ♪ >> our next presenter leads the largest component of the department of homeland security. to present the award for the 2014 uso coast guardsmen of the year, please welcome the 25th commandant of the coast guard, admiral paul s. zuchoonst.

>> all right, you have heard it from a-z. aisha, i'm not sure which is more difficult,. i have the not cool name. my last name means future and the future of the coast guard is very bright. [applause] in two months, the u.s. coast guard, the shallow water service, will cover all seven continents on the globe. today, we are in afghanistan, iran, africa, liberia, in south america, china, we are everywhere and i could not be more proud to serve the service but i cannot be more proud to have a seat that chairman dempsey has afforded me to be a guest on the chairman of the joint chiefs as we deal with many challenges that face us and the world ahead.

people always ask -- why do you give to come to work every day? what causes you to get up to work every day is the people we are proud to serve. first of all, we are an all volunteer service and how appropriate we are here with the uso, an all volunteer service as well. i'm just delighted to say that my wife fran is one of those 29,000 volunteers. [applause] she kept her maiden name because no one can pronounce zukunft so people would come through reagan national airport at the uso office and asked what her husband does. all of a sudden, they laid down alms but fran is anything but that. she is very proud to be part of this great organization that we call the uso that serves our members and not just our members

but our families as well. there's a family i will call out tonight and that is the family of petty officer brett bates, joined tonight by his wife leanne and joined by his mother and father lisa and mark and his grandfather doyle. [applause] why are we calling out -- brett tonight? many of you may have seen the movie "the guardian." brett bates is one of the guardians of the coast guard. he jumps out of perfectly good helicopters and he did so. it was back in april of 2013, launching over 100 miles south of galveston, texas and there is a fishing vessel foundering in 15 foot seas. normally you lower your rescue down by a hoist and it was too

rough to lower him down so he jumps out of a perfectly good aircraft. he swims up to a life raft. then he not only comes up to the life raft but he says," it's ok, i'm here to give you a lift." that's exactly what he did but if we could do the same with ebola that he did with this mariner in distress, and then he hooked up, and then we lifted this mariner out and all thanks to brett bates for doing that. if that was not enough, he also is an emt. on a tennis court, somebody playing tennis suffers cardiac arrest and he happened to have an iv kit and administered cpr and saves another life. he has done that again and again. and so he is truly a lifesaver. the biggest challenge for me as i call ourselves the silent service because we never talk about what we do.

brett bates is one of the many in our service that time and again, they save lives and that's what i'm trained to do. what you heard before his many heroes who have come before them and i will call another one out but that's what he is trained to do, to serve our nation as a volunteer. so brett bates, please come forward to be recognized, thank you for your service. [applause] ♪ ♪

>> i would like to think admiral zukunft for correcting me so beautifully. without actually saying, you got it wrong, he said it again the right way. it was very classy. my people cannot help but to put flair on everything we do. if your name was smith, i would call you smithay. all of a sudden i was like in a eastern european film. i'll never forget it again. i will remember it when i am crying alone in my hotel room. humiliated myself in front of the joint chiefs of staff. it's all good. the national guard provides a vital role in the nation's defense -- hold it together -- [laughter] both at home and overseas. in his civilian life, our next presenter pursued a career with the u.s. army corps of engineers to present our national guardsmen of the year, please welcome the 27th chief, national

guard bureau general frank j graff. [applause] >> good evening, everyone and i think if i checked the schedule, i am the last military presenter. i've got the simplest last name. i got to tell you when i went to basic training i went to ocs, that name did not give me any benefit whatsoever. [laughter] i was thinking as i was standing there listening to general dempsey throw me under a bus a few times and i'm the last military presenter, we've got a great chairman, no doubt. you should hear this guy sing frank sinatra. you might want to ask him before he is out of here. for pat and i it's a real pleasure to be here and so many places we have been, what a great organization that takes care of the men and women. you don't ask for anything. you walk in over and over, i have seen it, and i have to tell

you that no matter where i have been on the map, there's always a friendly smile and sometimes you really need that especially if you're going to dover or going somewhere to meet family and you need that smile to build your endurance up and do what you have to do when you have to notify someone. whenever you go in there and the family has been taken care of by the uso, it makes our jobs much easier. for everyone involved with the uso, thank you so much. before i introduce our award winner tonight, i want to introduce sergeant andrew multredder's family, his daughter cora, his parents are here, his brother al, sister-in-law emily, sister amy, and brother-in-law charlie. thank you so much for supporting this great warrior. [applause] andrew, as any guardsmen who has

done his training is in active duty training on the weekend. at the end of his training, he was heading home and back to lexington, his training was and shelby, kentucky. on the 12th of january, 2014, on his way home, he came upon an overturned suv on fire. with no regard for his personal safety, he went to the vehicle. he saw the driver who was unconscious and still strapped in. assisted by two of his kentucky army national guardmen and army veteran that stopped to help, sergeant mehltretter took charge of the situation and went into action to extract the driver from the vehicle even while it was burning. he wanted to make sure there were no more injuries caused. so he began to organize the effort at the crash site.