Kadena recognizes newest chiefs

Published Feb. 19, 2015
By Airman 1st Class Zackary A. Henry
18th Wing Public Affairs

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan -- Eight senior NCOs celebrated achieving the Air Force's top enlisted rank during a chief recognition ceremony Feb. 13 at the Rocker NCO Club here.

The eight senior NCOs are:

Senior Master Sgt. Tracie L. Welling, 353rd Special Operations group quality assurance superintendent;
Senior Master Sgt. Thomas J. McNamara, 733rd Air Mobility squadron superintendent;
Senior Master Sgt. Aaron C. Kigar, 18th Operations Support squadron host aviation resource management superintendent;
Senior Master Sgt. Edward C. Fitzgerald, 18th Civil Engineering squadron infrastructure systems superintendent;
Senior Master Sgt. John B. Wolfe, 909th Air Refueling squadron, superintendent;
Senior Master Sgt. James G. Clark, 718th CE squadron superintendent;
Senior Master Sgt. Rasheed A. Hosein, 18th Maintenance Group superintendent;
Senior Master Sgt. Eric S. Walker, 961st Aircraft Maintenance unit superintendent;

More than 200 family, friends and coworkers were in attendance, including honorary guest speaker Chief Master Sgt. Harold "Buddy" Hutchison, Pacific Air Forces command chief.

Hutchison spoke about what it means to be a chief master sergeant and shared stories of his own career and how it made him the chief master sergeant he is today.

He went on to speak about what he expected from the newly selected chiefs and how their decisions will affect the next generation of Airmen.

After Hutchison's speech, the ceremony began with the building of the stripes and lighting of the candles. At each step the rank of chief master sergeant is built one stripe at a time.

As the rank on the wooden plaque is built it's explained what each rank's role is in the Air Force family and how they progress and grow from airman basic, learning their career and skills, all the way to chief master sergeant, a leader and mentor to all enlisted ranks and lower officer ranks as well.

Of the 2,525 eligible senior master sergeants up for promotion, 479 of them were selected resulting in a selection rate of 18.97 percent.