Assistant to cyber commander to be promoted to major general in the Delaware Air National Guard
NEW CASTLE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Delaware -- The Delaware Air National Guard will promote a general officer during a ceremony at the New Castle ANG Base on Saturday morning, March 2.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Tom Thomas will be promoted to the rank of major general in the Delaware ANG with an effective date of Jan. 1, 2013.
Delaware National Guard Adjutant General Major Gen. Frank Vavala is the presiding official.
General Thomas is a 1974 graduate of Laurel High School. He has served in the Delaware National Guard since 1981 after four years active duty in the Air Force as an enlisted telecommunications and cryptographic technician.
His current position is the National Guard assistant to the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, who is also the director, National Security Agency/chief of the central security service. In this position Gen. Thomas oversees both reserve and National Guard units for the U.S. Strategic Command support to U.S. Cyber Command.
He last served as the mobilization assistant to the director, Defense Information Systems Agency/Commander for U.S. Strategic Command Global Network Operations and Defense. He commanded the Delaware ANG's 166th Network Warfare Squadron, operating out of the NSA in Baltimore, Md., and was the Delaware National Guard State Joint Force Headquarters Commander for all statewide communications and computer systems. In his career he has worked as a communications officer, engineering officer, and disaster preparedness officer.
General Thomas is employed by Bank of America, N.A. as a senior vice president in Newark, Del., working as a senior computer systems architect for the technology integration management group within the consumer bank division.
General Thomas has undergraduate degrees in digital electronics, liberal arts, and industrial engineering, with an M.S. degree and doctoral studies in computer science. In his professional military education, he is a graduate of Squadron Officers School, Air Force Command and Staff College, and Air War College. He resides in Newark, Del.
The Delaware ANG has 1,100 members, and continually deploys personnel and subordinate units around the globe. This release is in the public domain, and any part may be used as written.
Delaware Air National Guard: Celebrating 67 years of Citizen-Airman service to our state and nation, 1946-2013
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