MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- Chief Master Sgt. Alex. J. Eudy became the 25th commandant of the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, Maxwell Air Force Base–Gunter Annex, Alabama, during an assumption of leadership ceremony at the academy, March 31, 2023.
During the ceremony, Col. Anthony D. Babcock, commander of the Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education, passed the guidon to Eudy signifying the transfer of responsibilities and the entrustment of the unit to him.
“This institution is the bedrock for senior noncommissioned officer intellectual overmatch in competition and for conflict,” Eudy said during his speech. “Team SNCOA, continue to give students your all as we serve together and I promise that I will give my utmost to you, this institution and the SNCO corps at large.”
Before assuming command of the SNCOA, Eudy was the senior enlisted leader for Air Force Special Operations Command Strategic Plans and Requirements directorate, Hurlburt Field, Florida.
Eudy entered Air Force basic training in August of 2004. After graduation, he completed the 30-week weather forecasting initial skills course at Keesler AFB, Mississippi. His first assignment was at the 21st Operational Weather Squadron in Sembach, Germany.
In the summer of 2007, Eudy cross-trained into the special operations weather team career field, now special reconnaissance. In March 2008, Eudy arrived at the 10th Combat Weather Squadron at Hurlburt Field. After completing a six-month AFSOC Special Tactics Advance Skills Training course, he deployed with the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron in the fall of 2008.
On Jan. 23, 2009, Eudy was injured in an improvised explosive device blast in Afghanistan that shattered both his ankles. He had multiple surgeries and eight months of rehabilitation that led to his recovery.
Eudy returned to duty and went on to serve as the AFSOC care coalition liaison for the United States Special Operations Command at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, helping to provide special operations members of all service components with oversight and advocacy through the medical system. He also re-deployed to Afghanistan.
He then served as a superintendent at the 720th Operation Support Squadron, Hurlburt Field; was a student at the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Support Activity, Monterey, California; and was an instructor and enlisted academy chief of academics at the Joint Special Operations University, MacDill AFB, Florida.
“As someone who personally values and relies on SNCOs to be trusted teammates, I can’t begin to express how proud I am to have you join the team,” Babcock said during the ceremony. “Chief, you come to the job with a wealth of professional expertise and experience, and the opportunity to leverage that into meaningful development for the rest of the force.”
The SNCOA is the third level of enlisted professional military education. It prepares SNCOs to lead the enlisted force and best advise their officers and organizations they serve in both strategic competition and the future joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multi-national operating environments. There is only one in-resident SNCOA, which is located at Maxwell.
The ceremony also included the presentation of the Air Force Sergeants Association’s Americanism Award from AFSA Executive Director Keith Reed to the SNCOA instructors and staff team for their efforts to develop programs, ceremonies and other initiatives that further patriotism in the United States of America. The formal award presentation will be in August at the AFSA Summit.