Whitefish man gets top military award
<p>Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Mark Milley, left, and James Woffored of the General MacArthur Foundation, present the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award to Capt. Pete Akey of Whitefish, center.</p>
Capt. Peter Akey of Whitefish, a member of the Montana National Guard 1-163rd Combined Arms Battalion, was one of six National Guard officers from across the nation who received the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award in Washington, D.C., on June 1.
Akey is a senior vice president at Glacier Bank and the commercial loan manager overseeing all commercial lending for Glacier Bank and its 15 branches.
“Glacier Bank always has had great support for the military and my National Guard career,” Akey said. “I appreciate working for such an outstanding employer. They not only do great things for the communities they serve, they also support their employees.”
The award recognizes company grade officers who demonstrate the ideals for which Gen. MacArthur stood, such as duty, honor, and country, according to a news release from the Montana National Guard. The award promotes and sustains effective junior officer leadership in the Army.
While the A Company 1-163rd CAB commander, Akey successfully led his unit to defeat 10 opposing force vehicles without losing a single vehicle or soldier of his own at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California.
At the time of submission for the award, Akey was not only a Montana Guard company commander but also a volunteer in 12 different organizations in Butte, where Akey and his family lived for several years. He was the president of the Butte-Silver Bow Chamber of Commerce, the vice president of the Butte Big Brothers Big Sisters and a leader in the Butte chapter of the Montana Ambassadors.
Akey, a 1998 Whitefish High School graduate, and his wife, Vivian, and their children recently moved back to Whitefish.