Wing Commander receives new assignment

WRIGHT- PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio - Col. Amanda W. Gladney, 88th Air Base Wing commander has been selected for a new assignment as Director of Communications for Special Operations Command Europe in Stuttgart, Germany.

The 88th Air Base Wing Change of Command Ceremony is scheduled for July 17, 2012.

Her successor will be Col. Cassie B. Barlow, who currently serves as Director of Manpower and Personnel of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

Colonel Gladney has been the wing commander since June 2010 and commands more than 5,000 Air Force military, civilian, and contractor employees. The Wing provides support and services to one of the largest, most diverse, and most organizationally complex bases in the Air Force including a major acquisition center, research and development laboratories, a major command headquarters, an airlift wing, and the world's largest military air museum. The base is home to more than 27,000 employees and is the largest single site employer in the state of Ohio.

An Air Force Academy graduate, Colonel Gladney is a career communications and information systems officer. She has held a variety of staff and command positions and served as an intelligence systems staff officer for the Air Force Intelligence Agency at Fort. Belvoir, Va. Her command experience includes leading a communications squadron and group as well as a mission support group overseas. As the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Joint Staff she was responsible for assisting the Joint Staff Chief Information Officer in programming, planning, engineering and executing Information Technology Enterprise Architecture.
Colonel Barlow currently leads a selectively manned directorate that provides manpower and personnel support to NORAD and USNORTHCOM. She is responsible for military and civilian management systems and evaluations and also oversees the joint personnel policy and awards programs for the Commands. She develops and maintains the joint manpower documents and is the focal point for advocating additional authorizations.

A 1988 distinguished graduate from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., Colonel Barlow has served in a variety of positions in the information management, behavioral science and personnel career fields at squadron, Wing, direct reporting unit, major command, Air Force and combatant command levels.
The colonel was previously assigned to Wright-Patterson in the Air Force Research Laboratory Human Effectiveness Directorate, as chief of both the Logistics Information Technology and Corporate Development offices from 1996-1998. She commanded at both the squadron and group levels where she garnered multiple Air Combat Command and Air Force level awards. As the 48th Mission Support Group commander, she led security, communications, civil engineering, personnel administration, services, contracting, and logistics readiness activities for the 48th Fighter Wing’s F-15E/Cs and HH-60Gs, housed on RAF Lakenheath and RAF Feltwell, England