Redstone Test Center was well-represented in the latest graduating class from the four-month staff officer course at the Command and General Staff School.
Four experimental test pilots – Maj. Beau Carroll, Maj. Quinton Fenley, Maj. Katherine Houle and Maj. Nick Thurston – were among the 47 mostly field grade officers who received their diplomas April 24 at Heiser Hall. Carroll and Fenley were superior graduates, the top 30% of the class. Fenley has left RTC to become assistant program manager for development and modernization at Apache Project Office within the Program Executive Office for Aviation.
Houle, in the utility assault division of the Aviation Flight Test Directorate at Redstone Test Center, shared her thoughts on the 16-week class.
“It was very professional, a great opportunity to come together with peers from different backgrounds and branches and learn from each other,” she said.
Brig. Gen. Stephen Case, deputy commander for operations, 88th Readiness Division at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, was the commencement speaker. The Reserve general officer works at Redstone as deputy chief of staff at the Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space.
“The school time is worth it even though it doesn’t seem like a whole lot of fun,” Case said. “It’s an investment the Army’s making, it’s an investment that you’re making as well.”
Maj. Alex Ford, the space officer for 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Moore, Georgia, finished at the top of the class as the distinguished honor graduate. Ford, 33, from Mesa, Arizona, has been in the Army 11 years. From 2018-20 he was assigned to the 1st Space Brigade, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is under the Space and Missile Defense Command. The space operations officer and his wife of nearly eight years have a 3-year-old son.
“It was good,” Ford said of the class. “It was challenging. I think it was a really good opportunity to meet our peers and collaborate from across the Army.”
The distinguished graduates, representing the top 10% of the class, included Maj. Cam Bowling, Capt. Brian Peloso and Maj. Stephen Esposito. The superior graduates, the top 30%, included Carroll, Fenley, Capt. Kevin Harencame, Maj. Dan Kelly, Maj. Mark McFeaters, Maj. Jarom Ricks, Maj. Hammy Hamilton, Maj. Jeff Osgood, Maj. Peter Bauleke and Capt. Mithun Sheth.
“It was good, I learned a lot,” Osgood, deputy director of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research West at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, said. “I’m a research psychologist in the Army so I primarily do scientific research for the Army, so this was a good opportunity for me to learn how the rest of the Army works.”
The staff group leaders presented their class gift, a framed collection of photos from the Chickamauga Civil War Battlefield staff ride to Marvin Nickels, deputy director of the Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The Command and General Staff School, at Fort Leavenworth, educates and develops leaders for full spectrum, joint, interagency and multinational operations. The Redstone Arsenal Satellite Campus opened in January 2010; and Joe Judge is the campus director. The other satellite campus is in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Graduates of the Staff Officer Course, class 2024-001 include the following:
Staff Group Alpha: class leader Maj. Dustin Myrie, staff group leader Maj. Anna Yoo, Maj. Ed Bentz, Maj. Rodney Bolden, Maj. Beau Carroll, Maj. AJ Christiansen, Capt. Kevin Harencame, Maj. Brandon Hillis, Chaplain (Maj.) Matt Holder, Maj. Dan Kelly, Maj. Eric Kufel, Maj. Mark McFeaters and Maj. Lee Rodriguez Jr.
Staff Group Bravo: staff group leader Maj. Jarom Ricks, Maj. Cam Bowling, Capt. Mario Coronel, Maj. Quinton Fenley, Maj. Brandon Hall, Maj. Hammy Hamilton, Maj. Charlie Hutchinson, Maj. Adam Neeley, Maj. Jeff Osgood, Capt. Jerad Romine and Capt. Rickie Sallie.
Staff Group Charlie: staff group leader Maj. James Harris-Chappell, Maj. Nicholas Albers, Maj. Peter Bauleke, Capt. Lawrence Forde, Maj. Cole Holland, Maj. Katherine Houle, Chaplain (Maj.) Andrew Jenks, Capt. Brian Peloso, Maj. Joseph Reppert, Capt. Mithun Sheth and Capt. Brent Woodruff.
Staff Group Delta: staff group leader Maj. Kathryn Aeschbach, Maj. Manuel Atiles, Capt. Jared Blanchett, Maj. Stephen Esposito, Maj. Alex Ford, Elizabeth Hilliard, Maj. James Jordan, Maj. Timothy LaRue, Capt. Justin Purvis, Maj. Matthew Strasser, Maj. Lowell Tapp and Maj. Nick Thurston.
Social Sharing