Education, Training and Career Development.

Major Command Headquarters or Higher

Distinguished

Ms. Kathie P. Sills

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg, MS

Ms. Kathie P. Sills is recognized for her performance in developing, administering, and managing an Army Corps of Engineers-wide finance and accounting course. She developed a cadre of eight instructors and conducted training that provided all new U.S. Army Corps of Engineers accountants with a good foundation for their financial management careers. The Army and the Corps of Engineers will reap positive benefits from her training for years to come.

Meritorious

Mr. Cameron L. Baumgartner

HQ Air Force Material Command Wright-Patterson

Air Force Base, OH

Mr. Cameron L. Baumgartner is recognized for his leadership in numerous professional development efforts. He was the founder of the Wright-Patterson PALACE Acquire Council and institutionalized a formal mentoring program for junior personnel. He enhanced learning opportunities for personnel across all career fields through professional development seminars, sponsorships, and mentoring.

Unit Under a Major Command

Distinguished

Senior Master Sergeant Eric T. Earhart

305th Comptroller Squadron McGuire

Air Force Base, NJ

Senior Master Sergeant Eric T. Earhart is recognized for his performance in many roles, including chief of the Quality Assurance Program, leader of Inspector General unit self-inspection audits, CPTS Exercise Evaluation Planner, and selected command representative for briefings to squadron personnel, dependents, and community groups. He also devoted personal time to community affairs and to the pursuit of professional development, certification, and a degree in management.

Meritorious

Master Sergeant Chance E. Glascock

435th Comptroller Squadron Ramstein

Air Base, Germany

Master Sergeant Chance E. Glascock is recognized for his performance as the unit education and training manager. The unit earned an "outstanding" rating during a staff assistant visit. Twenty-two were airmen involved in a rigorous, requirements-based financial management training regimen.

Meritorious

Ms. Tamarah Newell

U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center

Fort Leonard Wood, MO

Ms. Tamarah Newell is recognized for her contributions to the education and advancement of military comptrollership at Fort Leonard Wood. She led her ASMC chapter's Education Committee for the chapter's Professional Development Institute and spearheaded study groups and examination teams that led to 18 members of the American Society of Military Comptrollers participating in Certified Defense Financial Manager certification testing.

Meritorious

Ms. Wilma Y. Solivan

U.S. Army, Communications and Electronics Command

Fort Monmouth, NJ

Ms. Wilma Y. Solivan is recognized for her leadership, initiative, and ingenuity in providing financial management training to comptroller career personnel at CECOM and Fort Monmouth. She led and orchestrated a Comptroller Fellows and On the Job Training Program that was adopted by all Army Material Command activities, and she manages the Comptroller Intern Program.

Resource Management

Major Command Headquarters or Higher

Distinguished

Lieutenant Colonel James R. Reitzel

HQ Air Force Mobility Command Wright-Patterson

Air Force Base, OH

Lieutenant Colonel James R. Reitzel's leadership and initiative were invaluable to efficient financial operations at the Headquarters Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) Forward Operating Location at the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). He excelled as the senior resource management staff officer at MNF-I Forward, CPA Palace, where he directly represented MNF-I and Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez on financial matters involving CPA and the Iraq Ministries. He often sat as MNF-I voting member on the CPA Program Review Board, charged with analyzing and approving funding requests from the various ministries, military units, and other organizations seeking CPA funding for the reconstruction of Iraq and to provide relief directly to the Iraqi people. He facilitated a unique salary payment system that involved many "first of its kind" procedures involving the CPA, the primitive Iraqi banking system, and the Iraqi Ministry of Finance. The process paid more than 100,000 personnel. In addition to his Iraqi service, Lt. Col. Reitzel excelled by saving the Air Force Working Capital Fund approximately $120 million in cash revenue through reductions in internal pricing redundancies.

Meritorious

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas G. Johnston

Secretary of the Air Force, Pentagon Washington, D.C.

As chief resource manager at Balad Air Base, Iraq, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas G. Johnston was responsible for its geographically separated bases at Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Tallil and its Air Force units embedded with the Army at 16 sites across Iraq. He quickly identified spending weaknesses and implemented a well-researched buying guide at every wing location. He transformed the finance office into a full-service resource management operation. He immediately tackled months-old backlogs of unreconciled government purchase card transactions and hundreds of outstanding local purchases tying up funds needlessly, resulting in the release of over $2 million for priority wing needs. Lt. Col. Johnston created the first-ever Financial Management Board to brief spending trends and special interest items to leaders. His efforts highlighted potential savings if vehicles were bought rather than leased, $13 million per year at Balad alone.

Meritorious

Lieutenant Colonel Bobby L. Lipscomb

U.S. Army Forces Command

Fort McPherson, GA

Lieutenant Colonel Bobby L. Lipscomb serves as the chief of the Contingency Operations Branch for Forces Command, the largest Army major command. He is personally responsible for the management of all the funding related to the Global War on Terrorism provided to the command. His office was responsible for management of over $20 billion in funding for FY04. During a time when resources were scarce, he took leadership over the program and brought all parties together to develop strategies to meet the shortfalls. Because of his oversight and in-depth analyses of various options, no critical mission requirements were unresourced, nor was there a critical interruption of war operations. He worked closely with the functional managers on the FORSCOM staff to develop targets that balanced programs throughout the command. His new process precluded inequitable spending patterns and allowed the command to balance resources against readiness priorities. LTC Lipscomb has put procedures in place that provide subordinate activities with very detailed funding guidance on the uses of funds, which ensures that they understand the proper use.

Unit Under a Major Command

Distinguished

Ms. Michelle P. Whitford

730th Air Mobility Squadron Yakota

Air Base, Japan

As the 730th Air Mobility Squadron budget officer, Ms. Michelle P. Whitford has set a blistering pace with amazing contributions to the success of FY04 budget execution and the mobility mission. She ingeniously engineered the financial administration in support and movement of over 75,000 passengers, 6,00 aircraft, 35,000 tons of cargo and 9 Air Mobility exercises. Through innovative streamlining of program administration, she was able to uncover approximately $20,000 in potential fraudulent claims and $292,000 in duplication errors. Her keen eye for detail prevented an erroneous FY04 support agreement increase of $420,000. Steadfast and proactive, Ms. Whitford was the driving force in the verification and approval of over 1,000 Defense Travel System and Automated Business Services System travel orders and voucher claims. Her actions reduced the squadron delinquency rate for the Government Travel Card by 60 percent. During the past year, Ms. Whitford has revitalized the squadron and host-wing financial processes.

Meritorious

Master Sergeant Stephen W. Dilda

Defense Finance and Accounting Service Japan

Senior Master Sergeant Stephen W. Dilda exemplified financial professionalism with a warrior spirit. Not only was he outstanding as the superintendent for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) Japan, but he also deployed as team chief of the comptroller office supporting the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan (OMC-A) for Operation Enduring Freedom. As DFAS Japan superintendent, he led a diverse team of 28 airmen and soldiers, 40 U.S. civilians, and 198 Japanese personnel by providing leadership knowledge on financial, administrative, and personnel support issues. As team chief, while deployed to Afghanistan, he directly supervised three technicians and provided oversight, mentorship, and leadership to an office of ten. Charged with oversight and management of 2,568 contractual files with Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) commitments valued at $212 million, he orchestrated an Open Document List reconciliation process that identified 118 dormant obligations, which, when manually reconciled, enabled reallocation of $4.4 million for higher-priority GWOT missions.

Meritorious

Ms. Nancy J. Lindsay

1st Armored Division Forward-Deployed in Support of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Ms. Nancy J. Lindsay is an exceptionally professional and dedicated civilian who in spite of the danger volunteered to deploy to Iraq to ensure that the soldiers and civilians of her division were taken care of in a hostile fire/combat zone. Ms. Lindsay unfailingly maintained her professional intensity and mission focus throughout the 15-month combat deployment. To make up for the lack of adequate contracting and base operations support in Baghdad, she helped train more than 240 field ordering officers (FOO) and managed over 2,500 FOO accounts. She helped prepare and coordinate contracting support for more than 5,000 critical mission and sustainment contracts valued at more than $350 million--a tremendous workload when compared to the division's normal annual workload of only 75 contracts. Ms. Lindsay maintained exacting accountability of every budget transaction in the DoD Defense Cash Accountability System databased accounting system. Her herculean accountability efforts resulted in consistent and proactive funding for the task force.