Fort Lauderdale Native Awarded CPPA of the Year

NAVAL AIR FACILITY ATSUGI, Japan – Command Pay Personnel Administrators (CPPA) serve as a critical link between the individual Sailor and the supporting Personnel Support Detachment (PSD). It is easy to see why commands choose exceptional Sailors to serve as that link.

CPPA of the Year, PS2 Steffanni Agudello, processes personnel

transactions at her desk.

Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Detachment (AIMD) is no exception to having their best Sailors support their command.

Personnel Specialist 2nd Class Steffanni Agudello, a CPPA at AIMD and native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was chosen as CPPA of the year.

“It wasn’t a surprise to me,” said AIMD Officer in Charge (OIC) Lt. Cmdr. Mike Feldhues, native of St. Louis, Missouri. “About a week prior (to the award), the OIC of PSD Atsugi notified me that she was selected out of more than 100 Sailors across 94 different commands all the way from here to Singapore.”

Although it was no surprise to Feldhues, the same could not be said for Agudello.

“We have training every month for CPPAs,” said Agudello. “It was a Thursday and I remember my OIC telling me to make sure I am there. I had a lot of people telling me to be at that training on that specific date and it made me think something was going on but I didn’t know what. So, I went there and we had the training like normal. A lot of CPPAs were there and they called me up presented me with the award. I was taken by surprise especially over knowing how many other CPPAs there are.”

Agudello has been working at AIMD as a CPPA for one year.

“I know how hard she works,” said Feldhues. “I come in here on Saturdays and she is here pushing out paper work to help make sure Sailors are getting paid on time. She is in a crucial position and provides outstanding customer service. It’s great to see her get recognized.”

PSD’s OIC Lt. Bekim Austin went on to say Aguedllo was the front runner and ultimately the winner for this award because of her continuous CPPA support to her command by providing required documents to PSD Atsugi on time and accurately.

“I feel blessed and honored,” said Agudello. ”I am grateful for the opportunity to even be here. I am sure there are a lot of CPPAs who do their job and go way beyond that. I am mostly grateful to my command, PSD and the service members I help because without them I wouldn’t be here.”

At the time she received the award, Agudello had only been a PS for three weeks.

“She just converted from AM2 (Aviation Structural Mechanic) to PS2 last month,” said Felhues. “She was getting out of the Navy because AM was not the career field that she really wanted to be in, but we were able to work with BUPERS to get her quota back to stay in the Navy and convert her to Personnel Specialist and a job that she loves doing and excels at.”

Through the hard work at AIMD they were able to keep a Sailor by performing a course correction to align the Sailors job field with their passion.

“When I came into the Navy I was undesignated,” said Agudello. “My passion was and still is customer service and to be able to cross rate to PS and doing something that I enjoy doing. I love coming to work.”