Air Armament Academy instructors recognized

  • Published
  • By Lois Walsh
  • 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Four instructors for the Air Armament Academy were singled out for their contributions at a ceremony Aug. 9 where they received the Blaise Durante Instructor of the Year Award.

Elizabeth Thorn, Bruce Stippich, 1 Lt. Gabriel Gersten and Ted Welch each surpassed the selection criteria for the award, which includes the number of classes taught, number of students trained and impact on mission accomplishment. The instructors were chosen from each of the academy's four colleges. Ms. Thorn represented the College of Acquisition, Mr. Stippich the College of Installation Sustainment and Management, Lieutenant Gersten the college of Science and Technology and Mr. Welch the College of Test and Evaluation.

Ms. Thorn developed course content and conducted classroom instruction on the Probability of Program Success risk management methodology, instructing 727 students here as well as many more throughout other Air Force acquisition and logistic centers.

As a certified environmental trainer, Mr. Stippich saved the government an estimated $107,000 annually in contractor costs by teaching four federal regulatory environmental and safety courses in the areas of safety, health and environmental compliance.

Lieutenant Gersten developed and taught both "The Middle East" and "The Israeli Arab Conflict" courses to help personnel better understand the situation is facing in the Middle East. His first-hand knowledge and experience growing up in the Middle East and serving in the Israeli Army made the courses very informative.

Mr. Welch is the Air Force's Seek Eagle office's spokesperson and instructed the basic AFSEO course here and at other locations. The information is vital to aircraft/munitions safety because the Seek Eagle program is critical to developing new stores and their ultimate flight certification on U.S. combat aircraft.

The awards presented are named for Blaise Durante, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Integration, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, who was the guest speaker at the event. Brig. Gen. Joseph Lanni, Air Armament Center vice commander, recognized the instructors for their diligence in training the workforce to do their jobs more effectively. The general also acknowledged Mr. Durante's contributions to the Academy, citing him as a "tremendous beneficiary and supporter of A3, promoting it throughout the Air Force."

In Mr. Durante's remarks, he singled out Judy Stokley, deputy Program Executive Officer and Executive Director for the Air Armament Center as the Dean of Acquisition, not just at Eglin, but in the Air Force. He spoke of leadership and change.

"If you haven't yet worked for an organization that needs fundamental change, I assure you that you will in time," he said.

Mr. Durante also spoke about changes in the way the AF and Department of Defense does things from a process standpoint. He lauded the instructors for their leadership, which, he said, is the main cause of change.

"It's simply amazing how resistant most organizations and people are to the type of systemic change in reform that can breathe new life into an organization," he said. "Most people don't want to leave their comfort zone, but we have to have more open-minded, risk-taking change-oriented people at all organizations in government."

April marked the fourth anniversary of the Air Armament Academy which was established in April 2003 to ensure personnel had a wide variety of training opportunities available to promote effectiveness in the workplace. A schedule of classes is available at https://afkm.wpafb.af.mil/ASPs/CoP/OpenCoP.asp?Filter=OO-ED-AA-A2.