AIA announces NCO of the Year

Hailing from Hastings, Michigan, TSgt. Edwin Willson is 1999’s Noncommissioned Officer of the Year.

Willson is the NCOIC of the Classified Network Program Management Section at Kelly AFB, Texas.

He was handpicked to be the project manager for the HQ AIA’s Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information Local Area Network upgrade; allocated more than $1 million, according to his nomination package.

Assigned to the 690th Computer Systems Squadron in 1997, Willson has also managed the total Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 migration on all classification levels. He wrote the “first ever” Microsoft Windows NT Migration Plan and Concept of Operations for Security Hill, according to Willson’s supervisor, MSgt. Jesse Davis. “He earned kudos from the Air Force Systems Telecommunications Engineering manager,” said Davis.

Being a master sergeant select after testing only once and serving only 13 years, he’s probably asked quite often about his secret to success. “Be persistent,” he said. “I never let someone tell me I can’t do something, such as make master sergeant the first time. I use that to motivate me in everything I do. There is no magic formula – just always try to be your best.”