Staff Report
The Los Alamos Public Safety Association (LAPSA) honored two local doctors for exemplary public service during a small but special ceremony Thursday at the Los Alamos Fire Department training room.
Los Alamos Police Cmdr. Oliver Morris nominated Dr. Beth Lindquist and LAPSA President Lennie Upshaw nominated Dr. Sara Pasqualow.
Typically LAPSA hosts an award presentation during its annual banquet held in December. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the 2020 awards banquet did not take place.
Upshaw, who is the general manager of Centerra-Los Alamos, the Protection Force at Los Alamos National Laboratory, organized a small ceremony Thursday to honor the two recipients who each brought one guest to the ceremony.
Cmdr. Morris presented the 2020 Public Safety and First Responder Award to his nominee Dr. Lindquist in recognition of outstanding public safety service for a fellow citizen. He explained that on Aug. 5, 2020, a 73-year-old White Rock resident went on a hike around noon near the Red Dot or Blue Dot trail. When he did not return home in two hours as usual, his family called the Los Alamos Consolidated Dispatch Center. A search party comprised of LAPD, LAFD and Classic Air Medical attempted to locate the missing hiker.
After several hours of searching another hiker, Dr. Lindquist, came upon the missing person who was dehydrated, disoriented and injured from a fall. Dr. Lindquist gave the man water and led him to first responders who treated his injuries and assisted him out of the canyon at around 8 p.m. on the Red Dot Trail, he said. The family of the hiker expressed their extreme gratitude for locating their father and husband as they began to fear the worst.
“Your assistance to Public Safety in our community goes beyond expectation and we want to thank you for your efforts in helping a family in need,” Cmdr. Morris said.
Upshaw presented the 2020 Public Safety Dedication Award to his nominee Dr. Pasqualoni in recognition of her outstanding public safety and health service during the COVID-19 pandemic. He explained that as the Medical Director at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Dr. Pasqualoni has worked diligently and tirelessly to protect the health and safety of all LANL personnel since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the beginning stages of the pandemic, she had the vision and foresight to establish and chair a LANL Pandemic Advisory Team (PAT), hosting weekly WebEx meetings to keep the LANL senior leadership and Mission Essential Function leaders apprised of current LANL status, updates to CDC guidance, predictive modeling, status of cases throughout the state, along with appropriate personal protective equipment and precautionary measures needed to keep the LANL workforce safe and healthy, Upshaw said.
Upshaw explained that Dr. Pasqualoni worked with the Emergency Management Division to establish a LANL COVID-19 hotline, ensuring it was staffed with appropriate medical professionals, and ensured consistent and current guidance was provided on self-isolation requirements and cleaning/decontamination of affected workplaces, he said.
Furthermore, she was instrumental in establishing a COVID-19 testing program at LANL, with results typically available in 36 hours or less, to ensure mission essential personnel and all employees working on site are tested regularly to detect and prevent further spread of the virus. Dr. Pasqualoni has tirelessly assisted the Emergency Operations Staff by taking calls seven days a week, 24 hours a day to determine close contacts of presumptive and/or positive cases and ensure appropriate measures were implemented to contain the potential COVID-19 spread, Upshaw said.
Dr. Pasqualoni has taken special efforts to ensure the health and safety of the Protective Force, Firefighters and other first responders at LANL. She has on numerous occasions personally directed the response efforts for cases impacting these first responders, providing cleaning/decontamination efforts, appropriate guidance on self-isolation, and follow up testing to ensure the health and safety of the workforce while working to minimize the impacts to mission essential staffing needs, he said.
Upshaw said that Dr. Pasqualoni also championed the LANL senior leadership to prioritize resources and efforts in support of the Protective Force and Firefighters so these organizations could continue to meet their 24/7 mission requirements. Her tireless efforts continue to have a significant positive impact on the LANL workforce in general and first responders and other mission essential workers specifically.
“Dr. Pasqualoni has proven to be an invaluable leader and asset for the LANL community; her dedication, care, and concern for the safety and health of others is worthy of emulation and recognition and is greatly appreciated,” Upshaw said.
During Thursday’s awards ceremony, Director Jesse Galvan of Protective Force Operations and Training at Centerra-Los Alamos presented the history of challenge coins. He explained that presenting challenge coins relates to how warriors and soldiers of old were hired to protect the lands of monarchs, and they were paid with pieces of precious metals.
The tradition was generally established in the Army and other branches of service to have a means to recognize and reward modern day soldiers for significant accomplishments, outside the formal process of submitting written award recommendations that may take lengthy processing and approval timelines, he said. Therefore, the “Commanders Coin of Excellence” was established for different military units and designed with various types of coins, typically including a unit logo, and the commander would present these to deserving military members as an on the spot award.
Unit coins also were used during WW II as a means of identifying unit members and identifying any potential infiltrators Galvan said. All unit members were issued the coin, so anyone without a coin was suspected to be an infiltrator.
As the tradition grew and expanded, a new tradition began. If unit members were together outside work, for example at a bar for drinks, if one unit member challenged another by pulling out his/her coin and the other did not have their coin, the member without the coin would have to buy a drink for the challenger, he said. If the other member did have their coin, then the challenger had to pay for the drinks.
Over the years the tradition has expanded outside the military and a number of civilian organizations now have “challenge coins” and use them as on the spot awards. To properly present a challenge coin, one must place it in the recipient’s hand during a handshake.
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March 22, 2021 at 08:48AM
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Public Safety Association Honors Two Local Doctors For Their Exemplary Dedication To Public Service - Los Alamos Daily Post
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