Tinker Airmen graduate from CCAF

Published Nov. 9, 2012
By Mike W. Ray
Tinker Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- "Airmen who thrive on learning" are needed today to help increase combat capability, safeguard democracy at home and create freedom in places where citizens had never dreamed of being free, Col. Gregory Guillot asserted Tuesday. The colonel, commander of the 552nd Air Control Wing, was the guest speaker at the 2012 Fall Community College of the Air Force graduation ceremony.

Tinker Air Force Base had 170 graduates who received 181 Associate in Applied Science diplomas. However, fewer than half of those students attended the graduation ceremony "due to the Air Force's high operations tempo, retirements, separations, and permanent change of station moves," Staff Sgt. Jennifer L. Hemen said.

The colonel remarked on the "impressive variety of career areas" chosen by the new graduates. Those areas included aerospace ground equipment technology, air traffic operations, aircraft armament systems, air and space operations, airway science, aviation maintenance technology, aviation management, aviation operations, avionics systems technology, bioenvironmental engineering, computer science, education and training management, electronic systems technology, financial management, human resource management, information management, instructor of technology and military science, logistics, mechanical and electrical technology, metals technology, and public health.

Colonel Guillot praised the graduates for having "achieved this milestone" while on active duty in the Air Force. Earning their degrees was important, the commander told the graduates, and used quotes from "three old dead guys and one man who is alive and well" to help commend their accomplishments.

According to President Theodore Roosevelt, "A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad."

"I'm not suggesting you embark on a life of crime," the colonel quipped, "but I think you catch the drift of what the president was suggesting."

The colonel also quoted automaker Henry Ford, who said, "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young."

Nelson Mandela described education as "the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Colonel Guillot maintained that, "An education in the hands of a Tinker Airman is, without doubt, a powerful weapon."

Finally, noting that Tuesday was Election Day in the U.S., Colonel Guillot quoted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who said, "Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education."

With 10,560 degrees awarded Air Force-wide this month, the fall 2012 graduating class is the largest in the 40-year history of the CCAF, Staff Sgt. Roslyn M. Evans told the standing-room-only crowd gathered in the Tinker Club ballroom.

Almost 27 percent of the active-duty enlisted personnel in the Air Force have received at least one associate degree from the CCAF, Sergeant Hemen said. Of those, she said, 45 percent are staff sergeants or above, and 80 percent are master sergeants or above. "Earning the associate's degree from CCAF is clearly important in an Airman's career progression," she said.

After the diplomas were presented, scholarships were announced.

Pitsenbarger scholarships, which help defray a student's expenses incurred in pursuit of a baccalaureate degree, were awarded by the Air Force Association to four CCAF graduates: Master Sgt. James Cutugno, 412th Logistics Testing Squadron; Staff Sgt. Daniel Holcomb, 72nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron; Staff Sgt. Nicole Longoria, 72nd Security Forces Squadron; and Staff Sgt. Amy Preitauer, 552nd Maintenance Squadron.
The Tinker Top Three organization presented two $100 continuing education grants to Sergeant Preitauer and to Staff Sgt. Charles Thurston, 963rd Airborne Air Control Squadron.

The Tinker Chief's Group presented a $100 continuing education grant to Senior Airman Alexander Carsner of the 32nd Combat Communications Squadron, the youngest graduate in the CCAF October class.