Duty Calls: Airman earns a national leadership award

Terry Brown
Times Union, Albany, N.Y.
(TNS)

Sep. 16—New York Air National Guard Chief Master Sgt. Greg Mihalko of Stephentown has earned the Air National Guard’s Lance P. Sijan Leadership Award.

Those who earn the award have demonstrated the highest quality of leadership in their jobs and lives, according to Eric Durr, state National Guard spokesman.

“The award, created in 1981, takes its name from Capt. Lance P. Sijan, a pilot shot down over Vietnam in November 1967 who evaded capture for six weeks,” said Durr. “Sijan died in captivity and was awarded the Medal of Honor (the nation’s highest award for combat heroism) posthumously.”

Mihalko earned the honor while serving as the senior enlisted leader for the New York Air National Guard Headquarters in Latham. He oversees 58 airmen who support the 5,800 members of the New York Air National Guard.

The state’s Air National Guard has five wings and an air defense sector. The 109th Airlift Wing is located at the Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia and the 10th Airlift Wing is in Newburgh. The New York Air National Guard is the largest in the country. There are over 100,000 airmen serving in the Air National Guard across the United States.

The sergeant was recognized for his job performance, as well as his volunteer work off duty.

In his spare time during this past year, Mihalko raised $3,700 for the We Care For America Foundation that provides education grants for airmen and their dependents, and assistance to airmen in need.

He also led a drive that encouraged 423 Department of Military and Naval Affairs employees to support a memorial scholarship honoring New York Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officers 2 Casey Frankowski and John Grassi. The two pilots lost their lives in a helicopter crash in Texas on March 8.

Mihalko enlisted in the Air Force in 1989 and transferred to the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing in 1993.

He has served in a number of leadership positions, and has deployed to Antarctica, Greenland, and in support of operations during the Persian Gulf War and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mihalko has also earned three Air Force Meritorious Service Medals, an Air Force Commendation Medal, an Air Force Achievement Medal, and a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.

Best Warrior

A sergeant has proven he’s the “Best Warrior” in the national 325,000-member Army National Guard.

New York Army National Guard Sgt. Peter Fillion, an infantryman assigned to C Troop of the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry, Buffalo, earned the Best Warrior Award.

He represented the Northeast at the national Best Warrior Competition at the Ethan Allen Training Site, Jericho, Vt.

The Amherst, Erie County resident is one of two winners in the 2024 Army National Guard’s Best Warrior Competition who earned the honor by proving they are the most physically fit and tough soldiers in Army National Guard, according to Eric Durr, New York National Guard spokesman.

Fillion won in the enlisted soldier category because he was a specialist when he competed in the New York Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition in April. He competed against six others from across the country in the junior enlisted soldier category. Each of these soldiers had previously won their unit, state, and regional Best Warrior events.

Fillion will now compete alongside other Army National Guard Best Warrior top finishers in the Army’s Best Squad Competition from Sept. 29 to Oct. 10.

“It’s the first time a New York soldier has taken home this honor,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Edwin Garris, the New York Army National Guard’s top enlisted leader.

“Sgt. Peter Fillion is an outstanding soldier and every one of us in the New York National Guard is proud of his win in this very demanding competition. I am sure he will do well in the Army Best Squad Competition, which will be held in the fall. Being the Best Warrior in the Army National Guard is an incredible accomplishment,” Maj. Gen. Raymond Shields, state adjutant, said.

Fillion works part-time as an architect at Kideney Architects in Buffalo while working towards a master’s in architecture at the University of Buffalo.

Best Warrior competitions include marksmanship, a physical fitness test, land navigation, military skills, boards where soldiers are quizzed on their military knowledge, and a long distance “ruck (back pack) march.”

Fillion’s edge in the competition came in the areas involving military knowledge, said Garris. “That’s where he shines.”

Vietnam War story

Kat Fitzpatrick, daughter of a CIA operative, will speak on her family’s experience in the Vietnam War at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, at Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa.

Fitzpatrick will share experiences leading up to the American evacuation in 1975.

Her father, James Welch, arrived in Saigon during the summer of 1972 after a tour of duty in South Korea. He led a CIA-sponsored organization broadcasting to the North Vietnamese during the time the Paris Peace Accord agreement was signed in 1973 to bring an end to the decade-old conflict.

Fitzpatrick’s quest to understand the impact of this lost war on both her family and America motivated her to compile her stories in her recently published book “For the Love of Vietnam.”

“Though I’ve written and presented about it for over a decade, I still find myself in awe at the events of more than 50 years ago — both our family’s stories and the many stories of the Vietnam Era,” she says.

She said her ultimate goal was to uncover her father’s legacy, his courage and tenacity during the perilous time.

“I grew up with the stories about my father’s evacuation of 1,000 people at the end of the war, but it became normalized,” Fitzpatrick said. “Only as an adult after numerous friends urged me to write about it, did I really plumb the depths of what happened.”

That motivation led her to visit Vietnam in 2015 where she retraced her father’s steps — from the super-secret radio station he led from a location known as House 7, to the seashore at Phu Quoc, staging point for freedom for Vietnamese families under his protection.

Copies of Fitzpatrick’s’s book will be available for purchase and signing after the program. This event is sponsored by the Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum. Registration is available at the History Center’s website https://brooksidemuseum.org/

News of your troops and units can be sent to Times Union, Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or brownt@timesunion.com.

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