HURLBURT Field, Fla. -- Operational security measures are a critical aspect in keeping Air Force personnel and resources out of harm’s way and no officer in the Air Force is better at that than Capt. Armin Blueggel, 1st Special Operations Air Operations Squadron assistant operations officer.
Blueggel was named the 2012 Air Force Information Operations Company Grade Officer of the Year, Level II.
“The mission of AFSOC is my biggest motivation,” said Blueggel. “I wanted to ensure that we, as Air Commandos, were doing all we could for mission success... everyone and every piece of information is important to the big picture.”
The criteria for the award covered three specific areas in the information protection field according to the award nomination:
1. An individual’s ability to identify and solve/mitigate significant OPSEC problems, threats and vulnerabilities
2. A demonstration of outstanding leadership/knowledge in the application of OPSEC
3. Innovative and creative use of resources to successfully accomplish OPSEC-related goals.
Not only did Blueggel meet these three criteria, but according to the nomination, he and his team exceeded expectations from his command.
Some of their work included giving 90 briefings to more than 2,000 Air Force personnel, developing a family-and-spouse-friendly walkthrough on protecting critical information on social media websites, and decreased deployment OPSEC breaches by 40 percent.
“OPSEC is very important... without it we might as well email our critical information to those who would use it to stop us from accomplishing our mission ‘anytime anyplace,’" said Blueggel.
Blueggel believes this award is purely a reflection of the hard work of his team, guidance from the Air Force Special Operations Command and a dedication to the mission from his commander, Lt. Col. Phillip Forbes, 1st SOAOS commander.
“The enthusiasm and professionalism of those on Hurlburt Field made the difference,” said Blueggel. “My office can only educate so much... it is the willingness of those on Hurlburt to apply that information and protect the mission which is what distinguished us from the rest of the Air Force.”