Wing staff meeting turns into shocking experience for weather man

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  A weather briefing in the weekly staff meeting here turned into a shocking experience for a staff sergeant briefing wing leadership Nov. 24.

Out of the blue, Col. Chad Manske, 100th Air Refueling Wing commander, publicly pointed out that he thought there was something wrong with the stripes on Staff Sgt. Matthew Ordorff's uniform.

Amongst a room full of commanders and other attendees at the staff meeting, Sergeant Ordorff, 100th Operations Support Squadron Weather Flight, looked more and more worried as Colonel Manske and Command Chief Master Sgt. Christopher Powell, 100th ARW command chief, kept saying they were sure something about his uniform just wasn't right.

The look of worry on Sergeant Ordorff's face grew to terror as the wing's two top leaders suddenly got up and walked towards him, coming at him from either side. The room was immediately silent until they both pulled a set of technical sergeant stripes from their pockets and announced that the weather forecaster had been STEP-promoted!

The Stripes for Exceptional Performers program gives discretion to commanders to award promotion stripes out of cycle, and promotion is effective immediately. Commanders nominate their people for the promotion, then the wing's command chief master sergeant makes the final decision on who earns the prestigious promotion.

As the crowd started laughing and clapping, a look of relief enveloped Sergeant Ordorff's face.

"I thought I did a bad job on my briefing, or there was something wrong with my uniform," he said afterwards. "I really thought I was in trouble.

"This was my sixth time testing, so when they told me, I just went numb with shock. Other than getting married, this was the best day of my life so far!"

Chief Powell said he and Colonel Manske took several days to come up with their "devious plan," and barely anyone else knew what was going to happen.

"STEP is an opportunity to truly surprise and reward hard working NCOs," he said.

Colonel Manske said he and the chief talked it through before the meeting, deciding on how best to approach it, and what story they were going to come up with.

"Being a weather guy, there was a good opportunity [in the wing staff meeting] to surprise him during his briefing," he said. "STEP is a competitive program and Sergeant Ordorff is a well-deserving person for this promotion.

"It was fun to do this in front of Team Mildenhall leadership, and to shock him in front of witnesses," the colonel laughed.

Tech. Sgt. Michael Rodriguez, 351st Air Refueling Squadron boom operator, was also STEP-promoted Nov. 24, to the rank of master sergeant.