Fort McNair (24 Jan., 2014) - - The Army Commendation Medal and three certificates of achievement were presented to four U.S. Army Military District of Washington Soldiers during the MDW Career Counselors of the Year recognition award ceremony.
Staff Sgt. Shaun C. Holman is the MDW career counselor of the year and was presented the Army Commendation medal by MDW Commanding General Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan. Buchanan also presented certificates of achievement to the other MDW competition finalists Sergeant 1st Class Patrick B. Burnish, Staff Sgt. Christopher P. McCuiston and Staff Sgt. Paul P. Melendez.
Holman recently participated in the Headquarters Department of the Army, Secretary of the Army Career Counselors of the Year competition and scored highest in the written exam section but did not win the top honor. That milestone went to Army Career Counselor of the Year Staff Sgt. Eric Detheridge of Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM).
"MDW's career counselors are highly trained non-commissioned officers and are the end result of a very arduous qualification process," said MDW's Command Career Counselor, Sgt. Maj. Willene Orr. "Our career counselors act as personal agents on behalf of commanders and the Department of the Army through the Army Retention Program. All Soldiers have a career counselor available to them and those counselors can usually be found at the battalion levels and above."
Holman has been assigned to MDW since Oct. 2012 and works as an installation career counselor at Fort Belvoir, Va. This is the 7th time he has been awarded an Army Commendation Medal in his career and deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
Army career counselors are the subject matter experts on all facets of Army life to include reenlistment, transfer of education benefits, and reclassification of Soldiers from one career field to another.
"The Career Counselor of the Year competition is important because it provides a chance for our counselors to display their self development and enhances their chances at promotion," said Orr. "They also highlight what excellent high quality Soldiers we have in the Career Counselor field."
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