Army Reserve ambassador receives Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. - U.S. Army Reserve Ambassador Phillip M. Churn Sr. received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award July 20, 2024, during the 4th Annual Teachers Festival Awards Night at Georgetown University.

Churn was nominated by the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation to receive the highest honor for public service for completing more than 4,000 hours of lifetime community service.

"I am deeply humbled and honored to receive such a prestigious recognition," said Churn, who retired from the Army in 2019 as a major general. "This recognition is in honor of my mother and father, who through their example of giving back to the community, church, friends and family is the example that I emulate.

"I have seen the need to counsel, coach and mentor officers, non-commissioned officers, enlisted Soldiers and civilians from all branches of the military," Churn continued. "I have had individuals who have stated that they never had a senior leader who would sit down and take time to mentor them on their careers and critical life decisions."

Mentorship is a powerful tool that helps to build competence, leadership skills, self-awareness and morale. Mentees can advance their confidence, skills and capabilities while maximizing their potential. The Army is persistently fronted by evolving threats and adversaries, and a mentoring program is an important component to ensuring enhanced force readiness and resilience.

"I recall a lieutenant colonel whom everyone in my unit told me I had to meet," said Churn, the founder, CEO and president of Syzygy International, LLC, a security risk management company. "She was a fantastic instructor with enormous potential. We finally had the opportunity to meet, and she asked me to be her mentor.

"I told her I would mentor her under two conditions: first, she had to submit a packet for the battalion command selection board; and second, she had to enroll in the Army War College," Churn explained. "She stated that it was her desire to continue being an instructor, and I told her that she had so much more potential and that the Army and Soldiers would benefit from her talents, intellect and compassion as a commander and senior leader.

"Today, that lieutenant colonel is a retired brigadier general who made great contributions to our Army, Soldiers and Families," he added.

Churn currently serves as an Army Reserve ambassador for Washington D.C. The Army Reserve Ambassador Program was established in 1998 to promote awareness of the Army Reserve and to serve as a vital bridge in the nation's states and communities to further educate and garner support for the Army Reserve. Ambassadors are special government employees who represent the Chief of the Army Reserve without salary, wages or related benefits.

"As an Army Reserve Ambassador, there are two key opportunities to continue to give back and serve our communities," Churn explained. "First, it is an absolute joy to talk to young men and women - mostly high school students - about the opportunities in the Army and Army Reserve, and the Minuteman Scholarship. Being able to help these young men and women make very significant choices in their lives at an early age will have a significant impact in their lives in the future and for our nation."

The Minuteman Campaign is a U.S. Army Cadet Command initiative to offer Guaranteed Reserve Forces Duty scholarships to candidates who self-select for service in the reserve component. The GRFD scholarship provides full tuition and fees or room and board for up to four years at a public or private school.

"Second, by volunteering to support the 99th Readiness Division's Yellow Ribbon Program, I can help Soldiers and Family members understand some of the realities and consequences of decisions made or not made before, during and after mobilization," said Churn, who deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, and to Bagram, Afghanistan in 2012 and 2013. "I can talk to them as an individual who has deployed several times, and as a commander who was responsible for deploying over 6,000 Soldiers and Families."

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