Sablan gets White House award

Standing proudly with First Lady Laura Bush, the CNMI’s own SPC Vera Sablan received an award for exemplary performance during the White House Communications Agency’s 19th Annual Awards Ceremony on Monday, July 21, 2008. Sablan, one of 23 awardees, was selected from over 900 active duty service members assigned to the Agency to be honored for outstanding dedication and exemplary performance for providing superb communications to the President, Vice President and their staff.

Sablan serves with the 3rd Presidential Communications Command of WHCA and is the unit’s human resources manager. In that capacity, she meticulously proofed, generated, reviewed and screened 485 evaluations, awards, official memoranda and personnel correspondence for the 75 Joint Service personnel assigned, maintaining a 98 percent suspense rate.

Sablan, a self-motivated soldier, displayed outstanding use of automation skills by maintaining and updating the unit website, providing historical records of unit functions, training issues, leave and personnel actions. She is involved in numerous community affairs and volunteer work committed to keeping young people off the streets, enabling them to become more valuable and productive members of our society.

Sablan is the daughter of retired U.S. Army Sergeant Major Ramon Sablan and Lucy Sablan of Saipan.

The White House Communications Agency, originally known as the White House Signal Detachment, was officially formed by the War Department in March 1942 during the Roosevelt administration. The detachment was activated under the Military District of Washington to provide normal and emergency communication in support of the President. The Agency has evolved over the past 66 years from a small team of 32 personnel working out of the basement of the White House to a self-supporting joint service command. The headquarters for WHCA are located at the Anacostia Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. and consist of seven staff elements and six operational units.

CNMI Resident Representative Pete A. Tenorio, who was at the ceremony, said, “I am proud to witness this historic event of a soldier from the CNMI receiving an award from the First Lady for exemplary performance in the service to our country. Our citizens join me in extending our congratulations and best wishes to SPC Sablan for her wonderful achievement and for bringing honor and pride to herself, her family and to our Commonwealth.”[B][I] (PR)[/I][/B]