Captain Colby Gregory, a Course Director at AFIT's Civil Engineer (CE) School, was selected as the AETC nominee for the Major General Eugene A. Lupia Outstanding CE Manager of the Year Award.

The award is named after Maj Gen Lupia, formerly The Civil Engineer, USAF, from 1995 to 1999, and recognizes the superior job performance of the Military Manager (Second Lieutenant through Captain) and the Military Technician (Airman Basic through Technical Sergeant).  Nominees are judged based on their significant achievements or contributions in the areas of job performance, management ability, technical competence, initiative, and resourcefulness.

At AFIT, Capt Gregory directs three courses in Asset Management: Introduction to Asset Management, Requirements & Optimization, and Activity Management.  The courses are taught via web and satellite broadcast, with some on-site instruction as well.  During the nomination cycle for this award, he taught 32 lessons to 148 students, totaling more than 1,600 student contact hours.  In addition to teaching, Capt Gregory also provides consulting services to the Air Force Civil Engineer Center and Base level engineers across the Air Force.

A member of the AF-wide BUILDER SMS tiger team, Capt Gregory developed data analysis techniques supporting a $1.5B SRM program.  He used reports from this program to show the importance of data accuracy and data currency as it pertains to choosing from the Air Force's over $4 Billion Facilities Sustainment, Restoration & Modernization program.  Furthermore, he incorporated the input from the Tiger Team's 18 members into a data analysis exercise supporting base-level Activity Management Plan (AMP) management supporting efficient, cost-effective installation support. 

As part of a 199-day deployment in support of Operation FREEDOM'S SENTINEL, Capt Gregory was awarded the Army Engineer Association's Steel Order of The De Fleury Medal.  This award is presented to an individual whose selfless service provided to the Engineer Regiment as it supports the Army to assure mobility, enhance protection, enable expeditionary logistics, and build capacity in order to provide commanders with the freedom of action needed to win full spectrum operations in an era of persistent conflict.  Part of his recognition came from his involvement in a partnership between US military engineers of the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) and Engineer leadership in the Afghan Government. 

During his deployment in January of 2016, Capt Gregory led a nine-day Afghan engineer training to support the Ministries of Defense and Interior in the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.  He developed a professional continuing education curriculum for senior Afghan engineer leaders and delivered 20 hours of instruction on asset and installation management topics including risk management, asset condition deterioration, work management and establishing priority.  His involvement in the training concluded by leading a trip from Afghanistan to Germany to show a selection of these senior Afghan engineers a functioning US Military installation, US Army Garrison, Grafenwoehr Germany.  In the end, the training was lauded as a success by the Commanding General of CSTC-A and paved the way for future partnerships of similar type.

Capt Gregory is also active in outreach activities.  He led an educational partnership between CE School and Dayton Regional Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) School.  This partnership will ultimately deliver the Dayton STEM School an asset management plan and provide on-the-ground experiential learning to the Air Force's newest Civil Engineer Officers.   

 
Capt Colby Gregory poses with his AFIT hat in front of the newly-completed Ministry of Defense Headquarters Facility in Kabul in April 2016.  Capt Gregory was responsible for the contracts to outfit this 446,000 square-foot facility with IT equipment and Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment.  This "Afghan Pentagon" will ensure the Afghan Ministry of Defense is equipped for success in defending its nation.