NY National Guard Chief Master Sgt. Shawn Peno, a Schenectady resident, retires after 29 years

Senior enlisted Airman served around the world and as advisor to senior commanders

Latham,New York (12/18/2020) — Air National Guard Chief Master Sgt. Shawn Peno, a Schenectady resident, marked the end of his 29-year Air Force career Tuesday, Dec. 15 during a ceremony at New York National Guard headquarters in Latham.

Since 2016, Peno has served as the senior enlisted leader for the New York National Guard Joint Operations Directorate, which is responsible for carrying out civil support missions across New York.

He is also an Air Force weatherman who has spent most of his career supporting Army and Army National Guard units in places ranging from the Balkans in the 1990s to Iraq in 2005..

"Sometimes I am more of a Soldier than an Airman," Peno said.

"I can speak Army and I can speak Air, and I can translate between the two," he said.

Major General Timothy LaBarge, the commander of the New York Air National Guard, and the presiding officer of the retirement ceremony, kidded Peno about being a meteorologist when he seems to get forecasts wrong more often than he got them right.

But he praised Peno for being an exceptional enlisted leader and for being incredibly good at his job.

Peno, he pointed out, is also the senior meteorologist in the entire National Guard.

"We have one four-star general in this organization," LaBarge said referring to the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, "and he has Peno on his speed dial."

Other speakers pointed out that Peno spent most of 2020 on the road driving across the state identifying and fixing problems on the ground as the New York National Guard responded to the COVID 19 pandemic.

In his remarks, Peno said he had appreciated the chance to serve and the people he met along the way.

"My career has been rewarding and I have learned much from my colleagues, my friends, and my family," Peno said.

Peno was awarded the Legion of Merit, presented for exceptionally meritorious conduct and outstanding achievements during his career.

Peno's other awards, from both the Army and the Air Force, include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Meritorious Unit Commendation, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the NATO Medal.

Peno joined the Air Force to earn money for college. "I discovered I needed a degree to get a good job and I needed a job to get a degree," he explained.

His father, a former Army and Army National Guard officer convinced him that the Air Force was a better bargain.

He said the Army was in the field all the time, the Navy was at sea and the Marines were crazy, Peno joked.

He enlisted to be an Air Force weatherman, which meant spending six years in the Air Force instead of four. When he graduated from weather school he learned that Air Force weathermen didn't just serve the Air Force, they served the Army too.

His first assignment was to Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

"I said to the sergeant, 'I didn't know the Air Force had forts,'" Peno recalled. "He said, "No dummy, you are assigned to the Army.'"

In support of Army units, Peno served in Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Iraq. When the 1st Armored Division rolled into Bosnia in 1995 to end the civil war there, Shawn Peno rolled in alongside the tankers.

"We were doing good. We were peacekeepers. We were stopping them from fighting each other," Peno said of the deployment.

He joined the Massachusetts Air National Guard's 202nd Weather Flight's in 1997. The flight supported the 42nd Infantry Division, headquartered in Troy, New York,

Following the 9/11 attacks, Peno provided weather information to the Massachusetts Air National Guard's 102nd Fighter Wing flying combat air patrol missions over New York City. Simultaneously he served as the staff weather officer for the 42nd Infantry Division overseeing the National Guard state duty deployment in New York.

When the 42nd Infantry Division was tapped to deploy to Iraq in 2004, Peno went along. He served as the 42nd Infantry Division's weather expert in Tikrit, Iraq. He also worked in Baghdad, supporting Multi-National Corps - Iraq and Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq.

"I loved what I was doing. I was part of the 42nd," he said. "I found a passion and a skill. I understood what (the Army) guys were asking for and how to take the data and turn it into a functional product," he said

Back in the U.S., Peno went on duty for a year with the Army's 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum.

He also served at National Guard Bureau, the headquarters for the National Guard in 2007 and again in 2008 as the weather expert there.

He began working at New York National Guard headquarters in 2009.

He handled command post and weather duties for the back-to-back Hurricanes Irene and Lee in 2011 and then Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

He's also continued to do weather forecasts for National Guard Bureau since 2013 while handling his duties in New York.

That, Peno said, has been a great job.

"I'm a kid from Schenectady who went down to the Pentagon situation room to brief the undersecretary of defense on hurricanes," Peno recalled. "It was pretty amazing."

Peno's New York duties, meanwhile, grew to include managing information for the joint operations director, working as a liaison officer, and training others on how to do the work.

"Shawn was a constant professional," said retired Sgt. Major Michael Hartzell. "If you are going to build a joint team, Shawn would be the guy you want."

Brig. Gen. John Andonie, who is now the director of joint staff for the New York National Guard and was then the operations director, named Peno as the directorate's top enlisted leader.

"He is a subject matter expert on the weather, but he brings so much more to the table," Andonie said. "He is a trusted adviser at the highest levels of the National Guard."

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