Lieutenant Colonel THOMAS McCLYDE JR.

Lt. Col. Thomas McClyde Jr, Air Force Reserve Command 353rd Recruiting Squadron Commander, March Air Reserve Base, California. He commands a squadron consisting of 2 officers, 94 enlisted and 8 civilians to annually recruit 2,400 Citizen Airmen. Lt. Col. McClyde manages an operations budget of $500K, 64 vehicles, and 22 offices across 17 states, 1 US territory & 3 countries. Additionally, Lt. Col. McClyde advises the 4th Air Force Commander, 21 wing commanders and the Recruiting Service Commander regarding recruiter production issues, trends, and barriers. Lt. Col. McClyde recommends solutions to problems and improvements to processes to ensure flights meet their assigned production goals and Air Force Reserve manning.

Lt. Col. McClyde entered the Air Force in 1994 as a Telephone Maintainer, assigned to active duty Air Force. He received his commission from Officer Training School in 2002 and subsequently attended Basic Communication Officer Training, graduating in 2003. His career spans a variety of combat communication, base level communications, project management and operations assignments while serving on active duty and Air Force Reserve.

Lt. Col. McClyde’s first assignment as an officer was to the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base and was quickly given responsibility of Deputy Chief of Theater Battle Management Systems – Unit Level Fielding for active duty Air Force. He went on to serve with the 353rd Operations Support Squadron as Director of the Special Operations Center and led a 10 member team responsible for command and control for the 725 person 353rd Special Operations Group (SOG). During his assignment with 353rd OSS, he deployed on several SECDEF directed exercises in support of the Southwest Asia area of responsibility. After separating from the active duty Air Force, Lt. Col. McClyde served in the Air Force Reserve as Executive Officer to the Commander of the Readiness Management Group. Shortly afterwards, he served as the AFRC Recruiting Service Chief of Information Systems. He later served as the Operations Officer for the Western Recruiting Squadron before becoming the Commander.

EDUCATION
1991 A.S. in Applied Science, George C. Wallace St. Community College 1999 Electronic Systems Tech Degree, Community College of the Air Force
2001 Bachelor of Science, Information Systems Management, University of Maryland 2003 Cyberspace Operations Transition (X-Course), Air University
2011 Squadron Officer School, Air University
2014 Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), Air University 2014 Master of Arts, Military Operations, Air University

ASSIGNMENTS

  1. October 1994 - Oct 1997 Telephone Systems Journeyman, 32 Combat Comm Squadron, Tinker AFB, Okla.
  2. October 1997 - May 2002 Telephone (Outside Plant) Tech 18 Comm Squadron, Kadena AB, Okinawa Japan
  3. August 2002 - October 2004 Project Installation Lead/Deputy Flight Chief, TBMCS, Hanscom AFB, Mass.
  4. October 2004 - June 2005 Special Operations Center Director, 353 OSS, Kadena AB, Okinawa Japan
  5. June 2005 - September 2006 Officer In Charge of C2 and Info Systems, 353 OSS, Kadena AB, Okinawa Japan
  6. January 2007 - June 2008 Strategic Comm/Exec Officer, Readiness Management Grp, Robins AFB, Ga.
  7. June 2008– July 2014 Chief, Information Systems Branch, HQ AF Reserve Recruiting, Robins AFB, Ga.
  8. November 2014 – August 2017 Operations Officer, Western Recruiting Squadron, March ARB, Calif.
  9. August 2017 – Present Commander, 353d Recruiting Squadron, March ARB, Calif.

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
Meritorious Service Medal with 2 oak leaf cluster
Air Force Commendation Medal with 2 oak leaf cluster Joint Service Achievement Medal
Army Achievement Medal
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal Combat Readiness
Small Arms Expert Humanitarian Service Medal
Global War on Terrorism Service medal
Air Force Outstanding Unit Award 4 devices

EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROMOTION
Second Lieutenant Aug. 16, 2002
First Lieutenant Aug. 16, 2004
Captain Aug. 16, 2006
Major Mar. 15, 2012
Lieutenant Colonel Aug. 31, 2018 (Current as of January 2020)