Edwards NCO takes next STEP in his career

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman William A. O'Brien
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  An Edwards maintainer received an unexpected promotion at the Base Holiday Party Dec. 16 through the Stripes for Exceptional Performers Program.

Brig. Gen. Robert C. Nolan II, Air Force Flight Test commander, surprised Staff Sgt. Geoff Bell, 412th Maintenance Group, with a promotion to the rank of technical sergeant after calling him onto the stage during the Base Holiday Party.

Sergeant Bell's first thought after being called to the stage was that he may have won an award.

"At that moment I thought to myself, 'maybe I won a quarterly award and they didn't have a chance to give it to me until now'," said the new technical sergeant. "I felt very proud I was going to receive an award and represent the accomplishments of the 412th MXG and the weapons standardization section."

Knowing Sergeant Bell was unaware of his selection for the promotion, General Nolan prolonged the suspense and told the sergeant there's a problem that needed to be fixed.

"I was thinking of shake, take, salute until the general got to the part of his speech where he said 'The Air Force has decided he can no longer be a staff sergeant'," said Sergeant Bell. "Then I knew at that moment what I was up on stage for."

Once he settled down and realized he had just been promoted, the sergeant paid tribute to his family along with past and present leadership.

"I would like to thank my supervisor, Tech. Sgt. Yamil Davila and Senior Master Sgt. Christine Beaudion, 412th MXS Weapons Standardization superintendent, for putting me up for this promotion," said Sergeant Bell. "I would like to thank my wife for supporting me on deployments and throughout my Air Force career and my current supervisor along with all my previous supervisors who lived and practiced the Air Force core values and reminded me to always respect others and myself."

The Georgia native is of Jamaican decent and said he was grateful for the promotion, but more so, as the only American citizen from his family, he felt the Air Force was a chance to do his part and serve his country.