Photo slideshow: Students interview for EPME awards

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  • I.G. Brown Training and Education Center
MCGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. --  When talking one-on-one with the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center's top enlisted leader here Oct. 6, Leadership Award and Commandant Award nominees preserved their sangfroid and showed their best military bearing.

Four Airman Leadership School students and 4 NCO Academy students interviewed with Chief Master Sgt. Thomas "TK" Stoudt, commandant of the Paul H. Lankford Enlisted PME Center.

The NCO Academy award is named and earned in honor of Chief Lankford, who was the first enlisted Commandant of the Noncommissioned Officer Academy and Leadership School in 1968.

The Airman Leadership School nominees met with the Commandant in the morning. NCO Academy nominees met with him in the afternoon.

Stoudt said talking with the nominees individually is among his favorite events. The nominees waited in a conference room outside his office.

Stoudt greeted each with a handshake at his door. He also showed them the view from his desk overlooking the campus before sitting down, side-by-side, in easy chairs for a talk.

"This is one of the better, if not, the best part of my job," said Stoudt.   "Inevitably, they talk about our instructors and how absolutely gifted and talented they are." 

Lankford Enlisted PME Center selected nominees from the EPME flights using instructor interviews, peer nominations and a point system. The Commandant's interviews helped determine the final selections.

Click here to view the photo slideshow.