Tech. Sgt. Brianne Kelleher, has been named one of 12 Outstanding Airmen for 2022 in the U.S. Air Force. Kelleher is a 1999 Wyoming Area graduate.
Submitted photo
Tech. Sgt. Brianne Kelleher debriefs linguists staff at the 655th Intellgence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Submitted photo
Tech. Sgt. Brianne Kelleher poses at a translation work station with the U.S. Air Force.
Submitted photo
DAYTON, OHIO – Tech. Sgt. Brianne E. Kelleher, a 1999 Wyoming Area graduate, has been named the U.S. Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen for 2022. She was recognized at the Air, Space, and Cyber Conference on Sept. 19 at National Harbor, Md.
Kelleher was honored for her work as an Urdu linguist and aiding Afghans refugees and migrants in Afghanistan.
“It’s really crazy to have people nominate you for doing your job and enjoy doing your job,” Kelleher said, on reflecting on her nomination and week at National Harbor. “We were all just baffled on how we ended up being nominated. It was the most insane week I ever had.”
Kelleher said she’s above honored on the award, but it was a team effort.
“I can’t tell you how I appreciate every single person in my leadership team and all my linguists,” Kelleher added. “Yeah, I won the award, but it’s not just me, I’m not an island. My unit did amazing work and I get to represent my linguists, I get to represent my unit and I get to represent my leadership. That is the core of what I’m taking from this.”
Urdu is a tertiary language among the Afghan population, Dari and Pashto being the most widely spoken languages in that region. Kelleher’s knowledge of made her valuable to those refugees for whom Urdu is primary.
Kelleher, the command language program manager for the 655th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was deployed to Afghanistan along with 22 other linguists.
While in Afghanistan, Kelleher’s team received 95 aircraft and processed more than 3,500 refugees through medical and visa procedures. Kelleher also developed a lost child alert system that distributed the information of lost refugees in their native language, ultimately reuniting more than 300 children with their families during Operation Allies Welcome.
“These people that were coming in just went through the hardest situation in their entire life, and they want to make sure that they have support,” Kelleher said. “They’re actual living people that were counting on us. It was chaotic, and messy, and things were not great, but we all just worked in concert. It was actually quite a beautiful thing.”
Kelleher, a reservist, works at the National Space Intelligence Center doing counter space analysis in her civilian life.
Kelleher reflected on her time at Wyoming Area citing many of her favorite teachers, but one stands out alone as an influence on her life.
“My favorite class ever was physics,” Kelleher said. “Mr. (David) Pizano is the reason whey I have a degree in astrophysics.”
Kelleher is married to fellow linguist specialist, Ben Steel.
