Photo By Sharon Singleton | Every year, 25th Air Force and the Freedom Through Vigilance Association honor Airmen...... read more read more
Every year, 25th Air Force and the Freedom Through Vigilance Association honor Airmen who have served 25th Air Force and its predecessor organizations with great distinction and excellence, far above and beyond that expected by virtue of grade or position. On Sept. 28, four distinguished Airmen will receive the honor.
Keith D. Thomas, DISL, U.S. Air Force (retired)
Keith D. Thomas rose from an intern to become the director of the Air Force Cryptologic Office, 25th Air Force’s senior civilian for the national cryptologic community and the recognized expert for all Air Force strategic and tactical cryptologic programs.
Hand-picked by senior intelligence officials, Thomas chaired an intelligence community senior steering group and was instrumental in increasing the knowledge of intelligence capabilities and the gaps impacting the community’s support to 5th and 6th generation Air Force weapons. He teamed with IC and foreign partners to optimize the agency’s mission and partnerships, led multiple IC studies and partnered with a committee to study the IC’s support to 5th generation weapon systems as well as the health and capabilities of the enterprise.
Thomas expanded the Air Force cryptologic enterprise’s interaction with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. His melding of the cryptologic and imagery capabilities of the U-2, Global Hawk, Predator, Reaper, plus other sensitive platforms, revolutionized critical intelligence support to warfighters on the ground.
This outstanding ISR leader developed a comprehensive analytical process that captured four key mission impact areas: mission taskings, customer requirements, resources needed now and in the future, and required intelligence products. He forged an inter-departmental team within the national intelligence community, the Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Aviation Administration and Air Force Intelligence Analysis Agency to perform transformational analysis efforts and interoperable data sharing to identify and prevent a possible attack by terrorist or nation-states supporting terrorism using civil aircraft.
His efforts in support of the surges in Iraq and Afghanistan ensured American and coalition forces were protected and that the very latest information was made available and used to eliminate threats.
Lt. Col. Douglas K. Kleist, U.S. Air Force (retired)
Lt. Col. Douglas K. Kleist served as a pilot and enlisted airborne cryptologic linguist with a career total of 1300-plus sorties. He has one of the most unique career histories in the agency’s 70 years in the fight, flying 100-plus missions each as an airborne cryptologic linguist, RC-135 aircraft commander and U-2 aircraft commander.
Kleist began his military career as an enlisted airborne linguist and was recognized as an honor graduate at the Defense Language Institute and at Goodfellow Air Force Base. He also received a below-the-zone promotion to senior airman. He later completed his degree and was commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Program.
He was recognized by three wing commanders for saving Air Force platforms and lives involving multiple expensive, low density/high demand ISR aircraft, and repeatedly received the “Exceptionally Qualified” pilot rating, a designation reserved for less than five percent of all pilots.
During his time in the Air Force, Kleist was credited with four saves of $220 million U-2 platforms with failed landing gear or electrical systems.
As a ground chase pilot, he directed a landing from his chase vehicle that safely recovered a U-2 and a pilot suffering from the bends, an extreme physiological incident unique to high altitude aircraft.
In a separate incident, despite an extreme hydraulic loss, Kleist landed a U-2 through a wind-shear with a “brilliant, no-flaps landing, in minimal conditions,” on a shortened runway at a sensitive, classified airfield, as described by an operations officer at that time.
As a young pilot on a nighttime PROVIDE PROMISE mission in poor weather, Kleist’s max-loaded RC-135 lost an engine and two of three generators, and experienced electrical problems. He coordinated with ground controllers, adjusted gross weight and limped the $500 million jet safely back to the airfield.
In addition, Kleist piloted a no-notice mission to rescue 200 trapped U.S. civilians in Yemen, and he supervised a no-notice mission to conduct atmospheric samplings following the space shuttle Columbia disaster providing NASA with the first analysis of the debris plume.
Capt. Albert R. Turner Jr., U.S. Air Force (retired)
Capt. Albert R. Turner rose to the rank of master sergeant while serving 12 years and flying 2,000-plus hours as an advanced airborne linguist in RC-135 and AWACS aircraft, where he attained the highest airborne qualification rating, Category IV operator.
Turner flew COMBAT APPLE missions in support of the fall of Saigon and the evacuation of South Vietnam. He also flew missions over the Gulf of Tonkin, East China Sea, Yellow Sea, Korea and Sea of Japan.
Following his enlisted time in the Air Force, Turner was commissioned and served eight years as an officer, attaining the rank of captain. His first assignment was to the 6906th Electronic Security Squadron as an officer in charge. Then, he was assigned as the commander of Detachment 4, 691st Electronic Security Wing. He was the first Electronic Security Command member to fly operationally, and the first to fly in combat with Air Force Special Operations Command. He flew roughly 900 routine, combat support and combat hours on AFSOC aircraft.
Prior to DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM, Turner worked with Big Safari to design and install the original SILENT SHIELD technology onto a MC-130 Combat Talon. He was given 24 hours, but only needed 23 to modify the original aircraft before flying directly to the Gulf for combat operations.
Upon returning from the desert, Turner completed his tour by conceiving, justifying and staffing the opening of a new 17-member ESC unit at Hurlburt Field, which would later grow to over 700 personnel in four squadrons under the 361st ISR Group. Turner’s vision and leadership laid the foundation for the unique organization that would become the 25th Intelligence Squadron, and eventually the 361st ISRG.
Senior Master Sgt. Doris E. Keeton, U.S. Air Force (retired) (Deceased)
Senior Master Sgt. Doris E. Keeton worked in Air Force, Joint Military and National Security Agency units as a mission controller, senior printer systems supervisor, group speech systems controller, data handler, signals evaluation technician, ZUPPAS operator, SILKWORTH trainer and mission supervisor. She also earned her Bachelor of Science in Strategic Intelligence.
Keeton had an uncanny knack for maintaining continuity on Soviet targets, receiving regular commendations from higher echelons for her work. She was often called on to cover highly complex tasks and high-speed targets that no other operator could handle, consistently producing superlative products.
This outstanding Airman was certified in, and ran, non-printer sections for which there was no training in her specialty. Local and national quality control reviews of her work verified everything she touched was delivered to an outstanding standard. Supervising joint sections of Airmen and Sailors, her teams were always rated the best at signals detection and acquisition, tip-offs and quality control.
With no training, Keeton quickly established herself as an estimative analyst and author of rare ability, distilling highly complex technical information submitted from various sources into an invaluable intelligence report. Using sound judgement and exceptional writing skills, she produced documents that clearly and concisely presented each week's most relevant topics to senior-level government executives.
As a young Staff Sergeant working outside her Air Force specialty code as an intelligence support staff technician, Keeton was the first individual to have responsibility for drafting a weekly report which was presented to high-level officials to keep them apprised of current intelligence situations.
On her own initiative, Keeton educated herself on world-wide trouble spots to become the recognized expert, preparing the weekly Indications and Warning book, which included the most current information available from sources on anticipated trouble spots in the world. One such report was so urgently needed by the National Security Council that Keeton was driven to the White House with it handcuffed to her wrist.
Keeton earned the coveted position of command functional manager for her career field, the first woman and first African-American to do so. She developed a roadmap that impacted the training and assignment of over 1,000 operators during the most rapid change and realignment of Air Force intelligence functions ever. Her sound work is still the basis of her career field’s training today.
This exceptional senior master sergeant blazed a trail that opened doors for women and people of color for decades, including her last official act prior to her retirement when she created a Joint Operations training program at Joint Air Base Misawa, Japan, which combined the unique requirements and training needs of all Air Force specialty codes and operational positions for the four military services.
| Date Taken: | 09.27.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.27.2018 12:08 |
| Story ID: | 294628 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO - LACKLAND, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 628 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, ISR Hall of Honor adds four new members, by Lori Bultman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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