Gabriel Chapter Honors Missileers at AFA Conference
September 30, 2024 | By Joe Burke
The Air & Space Forces Association General Charles A. Gabriel Chapter hosted the Eighth Annual Missileer Gathering at the AFA Air, Space & Cyber Conference on September 17.
The Gabriel Chapter started the Missileer Gathering in 2017 to provide a way for Missileers (those who earned an Air Force Missile Badge, Missile Operations Badge, or Missile Maintenance Badge) to get together during the AFA conference, to remember and recognize the General Thomas Power Missile Crew of the Year and our hard-working Missileers operating and maintaining the ICBM leg of the triad around the clock, 365 days a year.
At the Missileer Gathering, this year’s Air Force Missile Crew of the Year, 1st Lt. Patrick Finan and 1st Lt. Alexander Tarbet, were presented the Air Force General Thomas Power Missile Crew of the Year Trophies and congratulated by Maj. Gen. Stacy Jo Huser, Commander, 20th Air Force; Gen. Anthony Cotton, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command; and our AFA Chair of the Board, Brig Gen Bernie Skoch, USAF (Ret.). Gabriel Chapter President Mike Winters, a retired Colonel and former Strategic Air Command 4th Airborne Command and Control Squadron EC-135 Pilot, presented the crew with AFA Gabriel Chapter Missileer Gathering Challenge Coins.
The AFA Gabriel Chapter is named in honor of Gen. Charles A. “Charlie” Gabriel, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff from 1982-1986, and is one of only four AFA Chapters named after former Air Force Chiefs of Staff. Organized in 1988 and chartered in 1989, the Gabriel Chapter serves AFA members of the National Capital Region of Northern Virginia beyond the beltway along the I-66 aerospace corridor out to the Northern Shenandoah Valley. In addition to hosting the Missileer Gathering, the Gabriel Chapter focuses its energies on supporting the Guardians and Airmen at the National Reconnaissance Office.
