No one would have blamed Tech. Sgt. Jennifer de Lucia for feeling overwhelmed after taking the position of historian for the 446th Airlift Wing two years ago.

After all, there hadn't been anyone in the position since 2000, and history has a way of piling up.

"I took the position because I was looking for a new challenge," said de Lucia, who worked as a training manager during her 10 years of active duty Air Force service. "It was a little more (challenging) than I thought it would be."

But after two years of steadfastly sorting and gathering documents and writing histories, the 33-year-old Mammoth Spring, Ark. native has restored order to the position.

The technical sergeant also picked up an award along the way, as de Lucia was recently honored with the Air Force Reserve Command Wing History Program Award.

"It's hard to know sometimes if you're making a difference writing histories and telling people the story about the 446th Airlift Wing," de Lucia said. "(Winning the award) makes me feel pretty good, and that we're heading in the right direction with gathering histories."

The award cited the stellar 2007 history chronicle de Lucia submitted to the command.

While playing catch-up to make up for the years the position was empty, de Lucia had to write several years of the wing's history without including results of the happenings in the following years and how it related to the significant event.

"That's the hardest part ... you can't elude to anything that's going to come (in future years)," she said.

The catch-up also included going through histories of when the wing was stationed at Ellington Air Force Base, Texas. The wing was deactivated there in 1972 and reactivated at McChord in 1973.

"When I first started, my office was in boxes," de Lucia said. "I had to quit opening boxes because I got distracted."

Working just three days a month as a traditional reservist, de Lucia was still able to bring some organization to the position, chronicling wing milestones such as participation in Operation Deep Freeze, the Global War on Terrorism and the transition to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

"You want to include as much as you can in each history," said de Lucia, who works a day job as a civilian in the 62nd Operations Support Squadron. "It does take a lot of patience when it comes to being able to find the right people to get the reports to include in histories."