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AFDW Capital Airman: Maj. Cynthia Darnell

  • Published
  • By Air Force District of Washington Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Maryland --  Maj. Cynthia Darnell, Air Force District of Washington Contracting Installation Division deputy chief, is an AFDW Capital Airman. Darnell enlisted in the Air Force in 1997, she received her commission in 2004. In 2010, Darnell joined the Air Force Reserves. Darnell has been part of AFDW since March 2014.

Why did you choose to join the Air Force? The men and women of my family have always served in the armed forces. My great grandmother was an Army secretary and driver while my great grandfather served in the infantry during World War I. My grandmother was a Navy dental hygienist and my grandfather was a Navy cargo pilot during World War II and the Korean War. My father served in the Air Force Post-Vietnam as a pararescuemen then commissioned through the Boot Strap program to be a communications officer. I enlisted in the Air Force in 1997 after graduating from high school as a weather journeyman. I am the first female officer in my family and I am the first member of my family to attend and graduate from a military academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy.

What is your job and how does that impact the AFDW mission? I am in the business of conducting business on behalf of contacting customers. Working with our AFDW mission partners I help refine requirements, partner to develop acquisition plans for our customers' portfolio of requirements, and provide oversight of requirements in the acquisition process. The impact is significant to the AFDW mission of support to Airmen in the National Capital Region; if it is an outsourced operational mission requirement then we are the shop making the obligation happen.

What has been your most memorable or rewarding military experience? My most memorable military experience was when I was a first lieutenant deployed to the U.S. Embassy, Baghdad, Iraq, during the surge of 2007. I served as a battle captain in the Personnel Security Coordination Center Tactical Operations Center. As the second to last most junior officer in the North Wing of the U.S. Embassy I got to be a fly on the wall to witness the history of how the U.S. turned the tide in the Iraq war.