GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind. --
The 2019 award for Air Force Reserve Command’s Inspector General Civilian of the Year went to Grissom’s very own Dan DeAngulo, 434th Air Refueling Wing exercise program director.
DeAngulo was chosen for the award due to his exceptional performance last year, which helped Grissom to accomplish several demanding inspections while the inspection team was undermanned.
“We were short an officer for most of the year, and Chapin was deployed for five months of that,” said DeAngulo, referring to Zachary Chapin, 434th Inspector General of Investigations superintendent. “We were able to knock out a lot of different inspections for the year despite that.”
In 2019, Grissom was able to perform a nuclear operational readiness inspection as well as two practice nuclear operational readiness exercises, a capstone inspection, two active shooter exercises, a joint anti-terrorism exercise with local and national law enforcement agencies, as well as two exercises to prepare for the 2019 Grissom Air & Space Expo.
Grissom has also helped prepare other units for their own exercises, said DeAngulo.
“We reached out to Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, and they came to observe our NORE and Worthy Phoenix exercises,” he said. “We’re still continuing that relationship and helping them to learn the NORI and their new KC-135 mission.”
DeAngulo credited his success not to himself, but to the entire team surrounding him.
“I’m actually kind of embarrassed to win this award,” he said. “It really shouldn’t go to just me, because it was a team effort and the whole wing made this happen.
“Across the entire organization, we are one team, one fight,” he continued. That example is set from the Wing Commander on down. We get along, we work well together, we come together as a team and we accomplish the mission.”
Chapin felt that DeAngulo more than earned the award, however.
“DeAngulo goes above and beyond in everything he does,” said Chapin. “Not only does he do everything necessary to meet the mark, he exceeds the mark.”
Chapin praised DeAngulo for his reliability, and the fact that he could give DeAngulo a difficult task and count on it being done, he said.
“He walked into a situation where he was essentially a new hire in our office, and I deployed shortly after, turning everything over to him,” said Chapin. “He had a very short time to get spun up on his role, but he did a great job at it.”
Grissom improved on its inspection performance in 2019 compared to the 2017 inspection, and Chapin attributed part of that success to DeAngulo’s performance.
“His effectiveness in putting these exercises together plays a huge role in Grissom’s performance,” he said. “For the totality of the year, he had his hands in every inspection and exercise that we did.”
The 434th ARW is the largest KC-135R Stratotanker unit in the Air Force Reserve Command. The Citizen Airmen from the Hoosier Wing routinely deploy around the world in support of the Air Force mission.
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