The Army Europe Open Source Center team members from left to right: Sgt. Taras Demyanyk, Brian Couzelis, David Papava, Eugene Shilman, 1st Lt. Chelsea Michta, Michael Camprise, Matthew Skilling, Samuel Bankester, Spc. Marvin Lopez, Sgt. Skyler Barsten, Mirjana Bourke, Spc. Curtis Maxwell, and Capt. Kristy Bland.
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WIESBADEN, GERMANY- The Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Foundation named Matthew D. Skilling the inaugural winner of the Lt. Col. Ed Waller Intelligence Community (IC) OSINT Practitioner of the Year award, Nov. 10, 2022.
Skilling, OSINT mission manager for the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade - Theater, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), received the award which recognizes the OSINT professional who has demonstrated exceptional service to the nation and materially contributed to the OSINT discipline.
“I am honored to be awarded the Waller IC OSINT Practitioner of the Year award,” said Skilling. “I haven't done this alone. While the award is presented to me, it belongs to my team, colleagues, and the Army OSINT community.”
Skilling’s nomination didn’t come from the usual source. He was nominated by Shawn M. Nilius, director, Army Open Source Intelligence Office.
“While I am not his direct supervisor or in his chain of command, I see OSINT professionals across the Army every day and Mr. Skilling has had the greatest impact on Army OSINT over the last year,” said Nilius. “His professionalism, experience, and ability to handle the Ukraine crisis by showing the true value that OSINT can bring during a crisis made my nomination on behalf of the Army an easy choice.”
Col. Christina Bembenek, commander, 66th MI BDE, says she is very proud the OSINT Foundation chose Skilling as its inaugural award winner.
“I am proud that Mr. Skilling has been recognized for his exceptionally influential work in this field,” said Bembenek.
Bembenek believes the work being done by Skilling, his team, and the 66th MIB directly impacts missions and helps commanders better understand the operational environment.
“Not only have we helped the larger military intelligence community understand the power of publicly available information and OSINT, but we have set a solid way forward to train the force on how to enable their commanders at every level to better understand and visualize the operational environment,” added Bembenek.
The 66th MI BDE conducts multi-discipline intelligence operations and produces predictive all-source intelligence in support of U.S. Army Europe, Theater and national commanders in order to facilitate the gaining and maintaining of information dominance.
Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, INSCOM executes mission command of operational intelligence and security forces; conducts, synchronizes, and integrates worldwide multi-discipline and all-source intelligence and security operations; and delivers linguist support and intelligence related advanced skills training, acquisition support, logistics, communications, and other specialized capabilities in support of Army, Joint, and Coalition commands and the U.S. Intelligence Community.
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