Annual Award Lunch Recognizes Outstanding Achievers

In November, the chapter hosted its Annual Awards Lunch to recognize the outstanding contributions of the chapter's key members. The event took place at Wynlakes Golf and Country Club in Montgomery, Alabama, and drew a full house of military, industry and government personnel. The following individuals were recognized with chapter-level awards: Master Sgt. Brandy Silvers, USAF, Young AFCEAN of the Year; Herb Hunter, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), Government AFCEAN of the Year; James (Jim) Dendis, Industry AFCEAN of the Year; and Charisse Stokes, Montgomery Chapter Life-Time Achievement Award. Additionally, the following individuals were recognized for their recent awards from AFCEA International: Jason Frye, AFLCMC, and Master Sgt. Brandy Silvers, USAF, 40 under 40 Award. The chapter also recognized Chief Master Sgt. Tom Gwaltney, USAF (Ret.), for all his contributions to the Montgomery Chapter by naming the Chapter Young AFCEAN Award in his honor. Finally, the luncheon featured a presentation from Col. Rick "Rico" Johns, USAF, deputy director for air, space and cyberspace operations and chief information officer, Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC). Col. Johns opened by discussing how the government partnership with industry could act as a force multiplier. "Together, AFMC and industry can transform the way we do business, which will enable us to better cyber protect our weapons systems and provide our users with an better cyber experience," he said. Some of the ways that AFMC plans to accomplish these goals is though enterprise IT as a service, cyber squadron initiative, AFMC SIPR modernization and application rationalization and cloud computing. Col. Johns concluded by reiterating that we are the greatest Air Force the world has ever seen and we deserve the greatest network. The chapter congratulates all the outstanding achievers and thanks Col. Johns for donating his time to speak to luncheon attendees.