Galloway Native, 'Gami Class of '98, Promoted to Navy Officer

Congratulations to Melissa Dillard on her promotion to Commanding Officer of her Navy unit in Pensacola, Fl. The former Absegami Braves student is having a very successful Navy career.

Melissa Reichenbach Dillard, a Galloway native and a member of the graduating class of 1998 at Absegami High School was given the promotion during a change-of-command ceremony at the National Naval Aviation Museum aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola, March 5.

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According to the Navy's Chief of Naval Air Training, Dillard VT-4 unit is a "winging squadron' onboard the NAS Pensacola, that trains student Naval Flight officers.

Cmdr. Melissa “FASM” Dillard assumed command during the ceremony. VT-4 conducts undergraduate naval flight officer training for the Navy, Marine Corps, and select international military partners in preparation for follow-on training in the E-2 Hawkeye, E-6 Mercury, EP-3 Aries, and P-8 Poseidon aircraft communities.

The Navy announced the promotion as part of their celebration of Women's History Month.

As we celebrate #WomensHistoryMonth, we recognize two women leading the way in #NavalAviation.

BZ to Cmdr. Sara "SUMAT" Taylor for an awesome tour leading
Training Squadron FOUR Warbucks
Squadron Augment Unit. Cmdr. Melissa "FASM" Dillard assumed command of the unit Friday during a small ceremony at the
National Naval Aviation Museum
aboard
NAS Pensacola
.

VT-4 is our only squadron that exclusively uses state-of-the-art multi-crew simulators that combine fleet-derived sensors with realistic adversarial problem sets to develop highly skilled naval flight officers who will operate in E-2 Hawkeye, E-6 Mercury, EP-3 Aries, and P-8 Poseidon aircraft communities.

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