Alaska Army National Guard Soldier, Col. Mike Bridges was honored with the Department of States’ Superior Honor Award, one of only six honor awards conveyed by the Secretary of State and normally only presented to members of the Foreign Affairs Agencies. Bridges received the award for his work with one of the first Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq. The EPRT’s main goal was and is to help the Iraqis become a self-developing, self-sustaining and self-reliant governance, and due to the hard work and perseverance of Bridges’ EPRT, Baghdad 5, the three districts they were in-charge of became successful, sovereign government under new leadership and a new political system.