New NCOA commandant excited about teaching, meeting people Published May 17, 2007 By Corey Dahl 21st Space Wing Public Affairs PETERSON AFB, Colo. -- Chief Master Sgt. Thomas Young has spent 21 years in the Air Force, but he counts just two and a half of them as his favorite. A personnel specialist for most of his career, Chief Young spent 30 months working as an instructor at the Air Force Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Academy a year and a half ago, and knew a switch to Professional Military Education was for him. "That was one of my favorite assignments," he said. "I knew if I had the opportunity to work in PME again, I'd jump all over it." And he did. Chief Young will take over as commandant of Peterson's Forrest L. Vosler Non-Commissioned Officer Academy May 29 when the academy's current leader, Chief Master Sgt. Cari Kent, steps down. Chief Kent is leaving to become the command chief at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. "The timing just happened to be perfect," Chief Young said. "Chief Kent got another position, I applied and I was fortunate enough to have been selected." Originally from Georgia, Chief Young has been at Peterson since 2006 as superintendent of the 21st Space Wing's military personnel flight, overseeing activities ranging from the issue of ID cards to promotions and retirements. Switching over to PME after working in such a broad field will be a challenge, Chief Young said, but it's one he's excited about - mostly because of the wide variety of Airmen he'll get to meet and teach. "What I like about PME are the people," he said. "You might be teaching the same thing over and over again, but it seems different every time because you have new people who bring different perspectives. That's the fun part." The hard part, Chief Young said, will be teaching students about the new Air Force shaping initiative, a major goal of his. He plans to use the academy to educate Airmen about the initiative, which will reduce the service by 40,000 over the next three years to save money for equipment and aircraft updates, and let them know what impact the changes will have on them. "Everyone wants to know, 'How will that affect me?'" he said. "So our biggest goal is to show Airmen where they fit in with all the changes." Otherwise, Chief Young said he doesn't yet have any major plans or changes in store for the academy, but he won't rule out leaving his mark on the school. "Eventually I'll probably come up with some plans, add a few 'Young-isms,'" he said. "But right now my initial goal is just to get in there and see how things are working. An old chief told me a long time ago, 'Don't change anything until you know how it's working,' so I don't." Comment on this story.