Rich promoted to Chief Master Sergeant

Photo By Capt. Dylan Hollums | Rich promoted to Chief Master Sergeant  

FORT SMITH, AR, UNITED STATES

04.30.2020

Story by Airman 1st Class Christopher Sherlock 

188th Wing

Joshua H. Rich, 188th Emergency Manager, was promoted to Chief Master Sgt, effective April 30, 2020. Such an accomplishment is recognized in a ceremony with airmen, family members, friends, and cake, but limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the event.

The ceremony, had it been held, meant more to Chief Rich as a way to show airmen what devoting yourself to hard work was capable of doing.

“About the time I became a Master Sergeant I began to realize that military ceremonies are for those observing,” says Rich. “It shows what can happen when you apply yourself and the gratitude for those that made it happen.”

Since joining the Air National Guard in August 2001 as part of the 188th’s Emergency Management team, Chief Rich set goals to make the best of himself in order to fulfill his personal responsibility to serve and to help protect his unit and the public.

“Shortly after I joined, I wrote down a goal to become a Chief. One of my leaders laughed at the idea and said I wouldn’t make it to Tech. Sgt." recalls Rich. From that moment on I challenged myself to always be ready and not have rank wait on me but for me to take on more responsibility and wait on rank.”

Chief Rich accredits his career to the commanders, officers, and supervisors that trained, mentored, and set him up to succeed.

“It’s a lifetime achievement - an awesome, humbling achievement that I couldn’t have done by myself.”

"This promotion was well deserved," said Lt. Col. Riley D Donoho, 188th Base Deputy Civil Engineer. "He has always been a consistently positive leader in our squadron. He brings a high level of professionalism to anything he's involved in."

Chief Rich began his career graduating from the Disaster Preparedness technical training March 2003. From 2003 until 2010 he served as the Lead EM Cadre for the Air National Guard’s 188th Regional Training Site. He served as the 188th Civil Engineer Squadron First Sergeant from November 2010 until March 2014. Chief Rich then returned to the Emergency Management career field as the 188th Installation Emergency Manager.

He has also been assigned a position as Air National Guard FEMA Region 9 Chief, which oversees Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam, and multiple island entities in the Pacific Ocean.

Recently in 2019, Chief Rich served as Project Officer for Global Dragon 2019, an Air National Guard-led joint training exercise focusing on career fields across the mission support enterprise in as close to real-world conditions as possible. The event required coordination two years in the making to bring together Airmen from 59 units across 48 states and several locations overseas. Chief Rich claims the event as one of his greatest achievements.

Rich deployed in 2003 to Jacobabad, Pakistan, in support of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM. In 2005 he deployed in support of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM to Kirkuk, Iraq. Chief Rich deployed in support of OPERATION FREEDOM SENTINEL and OPERATION HORN of AFRICA in 2016 to an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia. In 2017 He deployed to the Virgin Islands on St Croix, for hurricanes Irma and Maria relief.

• Date Taken: 04.30.2020
• Date Posted: 06.25.2020 12:04
• Story ID: 372819
• Location: FORT SMITH, AR, US