ROME — The Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate celebrated several local scientists, engineers, civilians and military personnel at the AFRL Awards Ceremony held Thursday, March 2, to recognize the 2022 annual award recipients and nominees.

AFRL teams and individuals nationwide were honored and recognized for their outstanding career accomplishments during the awards ceremony. In addition, nominees and winners are recognized for their leading-edge research in developing technologies supporting the warfighter and national defense.

Director of the AFRL Information Directorate, Col. Fred Garcia, II, presented awards to 27 individuals at the Rome Laboratory location. “It is great to see the Information Directorate represented at the AFRL annual awards ceremony,” Garcia said. “These awards credit the individuals and the broader teams supporting them. The winners and all those nominated should be extremely proud of their work to help further air and space superiority.”

Among the award recipients were:

• 2d Lt Oleksiy Redko, who was honored as the Company Grade Officer of the Year for his leadership role supporting an AFRL personnel flight;
• Capt. Robert Mellish, who received the AFRL Commander’s Cup Richard Neal Special Recognition award;
• The Information Directorate Perimeter Security Military Construction (MILCON) Implementation Team was honored as the winner in the Mission Support Team category. The team was instrumental in the $14.8 million project to provide the Rome laboratory location with a new gate and entry point that brought the AFRL Information Directorate’s gates into compliance with updated security requirements. The new gate opened on Nov. 1, 2022. Improvements focused on increasing the gate’s operational capacity and security capabilities and improving safety for the defenders who staff the gate and those who pass through it. The team included: Paul Baranoski, Michael Dinardo, Peter Fitzgerald, Edward Gittings, Vincent Guza, Kenneth Johnson, Ted Kephart, Jr., Shad Lopez, Kristen Merrill, Thomas Moses, Jennifer Moyer, Cornell Parrish, Jr., Scott Podkowka, Gabriel Sbarglia, Edward Smith, and Franciso Tallarino.
• The AFRL Information Directorate’s Intelligence Team was honored as the S & T Technician Team of the Year. This team included: TSgt Bryan Burns, TSgt Andrew Gushlaw, TSgt Nathan Metzger, TSgt James Minter, TSgt Luke Ogburn, TSgt Sean Rohde, SrA Matthew Stapleton, TSgt Walker Szucs, and TSgt Benjamin Wise.