JSpOC Director Receives Distinguished Space Leadership Award

  • Published
  • By Major Cody Chiles
  • 14th Air Force, Public Affairs

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Col. Michael T. Manor, Director, Joint Space Operations Center and Commander, 614th Air Operations Center, received the Jerome F. O'Malley Distinguished Space Leadership Award during a ceremony at the Air Force Association’s 2018 Air Force Ball in Colorado Springs, Colo. Feb. 17.

 

During the ceremony Manor was recognized for outstanding and visionary leadership in the application of space capabilities to deliver integrated and synchronized combat effects to combined and joint warfighting operations.

 

Additionally, the award recognized Manor for advancing O’Malley’s vision of “providing an intensified space focus and reorienting USAF philosophy toward an operational approach by advocating the operational use of space systems at the highest levels of the Air Force.”

 

As the JSpOC director and 614th AOC commander, Manor leads the Air Force’s only space Air Operations Center comprised of more than 400 joint, allied, civilian, and contracted space experts; fulfilling more than 1,500 annual requests for space effects on behalf of theater-level warfighters across 9 combatant commands.

 

After more than a decade of JSpOC operations, Manor directed and led the JSpOC 2.0 initiative. This initiative drove a major JSpOC reorganization in support of theater-focused operations, continues to ensure the JSpOC's relevance and support for combatant command warfighters, ensures space defense operations are informed by theater needs, and proactively ensures delivery of space effects to provide the best operational space support to theater users. The initiative also directly supports U.S. Strategic Command’s vision for the JSpOC to become a Combined Space Operations Center by the end of 2018.

 

“Col. Manor is a phenomenal leader and warfighter. The JSpOC and AOC have transformed tremendously under his command,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, Deputy Joint Force Space Component Commander and Commander, 14th Air Force. “He’s leading our operational efforts and we’re proud of the advances he continues to make as we transition into a new, exciting and critical era in space.”    

 

The award was first presented to a member of the Department of Defense by the Lance P. Sijan Chapter of the Air Force Association in 2002; and named after O’Malley, a long-time advocate for space forces and former Commander, Tactical Air Command, who tragically died during an aircraft mishap in 1985.

 

“It's an incredible honor and extremely humbling to be associated with General O'Malley who stood out as one of our Air Force heroes in a generation filled with exceptional leaders,” said Manor. “This award is a direct reflection of the numerous accomplishments achieved by the outstanding men and women of the JSpOC. Their hard work, enthusiasm, and teamwork continues to generate new and innovative ways of delivering space effects to global warfighters.”      

 

Past recipients of the O'Malley Distinguished Space Leadership Award include:
2002 Lt. Gen. Roger DeKok
2003 Gen. John Jumper
2004 Col. Richard Webber
2004 Col. Larry James
2005 Brig. Gen. Theresa Djuric
2006 Lt. Randall Claar
2007 Brig. Gen. Jay Raymond
2008 Col. Stephen Whiting
2009 Maj. Gen. John Hyten
2009 Gen. James Cartwright
2010 Gen. C. Robert Kehler

2011 Brig. Gen. David Thompson

2012 Brig. Gen. Kevin McLaughlin

2013 Brig. Gen. David Buck

2015 Brig. Gen. Nina Armagno

2016 Brig. Gen. John Shaw

2017 Col. DeAnna Burt