BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- This month’s Excellent Airman is Senior Master Sgt. Justin “Hollywood” Hollingsworth, a flight chief in the 117th Security Forces Squadron (SFS)!
Due to being deployed, Master Sgt. William Gamble, the acting first sergeant for the 117th SFS and a close friend of Hollingsworth, gave insight into his career and accomplishments.
“I met Hollingsworth when I came into this unit back in 2007,” said Gamble. “Shortly after we deployed to Manaus, Kyrgyzstan, and we were both senior airmen at the time. We started our friendship then and we have been friends ever since. He is such a down to earth person, sees the best in situations, tries to keep a positive outlook on things and keeps morale up. He is just fun to be around, so Hollywood is a good fitting nickname for him.”
Hollingsworth enlisted in March of 2007 into the 117th SFS and has been there since. Over his career he has deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Freedom Sentinel and Northwest Africa Counterterrorism.
“He is the father of two young boys, he is a great dad. He spends a lot of time with his children,” Gamble said. “When he doesn’t have his children, we like to play golf. I don’t currently have a motorcycle right now, but when I did, we would go on motorcycle rides.”
Hollingsworth's commitment to service stood out to Gamble.
“He worked for 10 years for Cullman City Police Department as a secondary job. He has always been about public service and helping people,” Gamble said. “He took what he learned, leadership-wise, from here into that job and I think that it really benefitted him personally and that agency. He is a fantastic leader. He is the type of senior leadership that everybody feels comfortable going to get advice, job knowledge, questions and best practices on how to handle situations.
Hollingsworth moved through several of the duty positions within the SFS and took over the Anti-Terrorism Program. Gamble said he built the program from the ground up and everything we do here for anti-terrorism is based off of things pulled from other bases and tailored to the 117th.
“He is currently on his fourth deployment. He was a team lead and operations superintendent. He is currently on a deployment and is a flight chief there, so he has been put into a lot of leadership roles where he has excelled every time,” Gamble said. “This is not me speaking as his friend, but as a fellow leader. If I was building a team and I had to pick a senior leader to run that team, I would pick him.”