BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Maj. Ryan Tilbury, an Individual Mobilization Augmentee exercise planner with U.S. Pacific Command, recently received the Alaska Community Service Medal.
The medal, awarded by the state’s governor, recognized Tilbury’s six years of service on the state’s Veterans Advisory Council.
Alaska has the highest per capita veteran population of any state, with nearly one third being either a veteran or a family member. The council, which is made up of veterans from communities around the state, is tasked to listen to veterans in their communities and bring informed recommendations about their needs to the state Office of Veteran’s Affairs and the governor.
During his two terms on the council, which ended in 2016, Tilbury championed a number of initiatives to improve the lives of the state’s many veterans. He said he applied in 2010 and was appointed by then-governor Sean Parnell. Tilbury said service on the council included meeting several times each year as a group to discuss issues facing Alaskan veterans, as well as meetings with the governor and legislature to make recommendations for possible implementation.
“We have become a very visible group to our legislators who regularly seek our guidance when we meet with them during the legislative session,” said Tilbury.
During his six years on the council, Tilbury was instrumental in the passage of a number of laws. According to Verdie Bowen, the state director of the Office of Veteran’s Affairs, 30 percent of what went before the legislature during Tilbury’s tenure was passed into law. Bowen said the Air Force Reservist was critical to passing several laws, including one allowing veterans to receive a special identifier on their driver’s license and one that awards civilian college credit for training and experience gained in the military. Tilbury also lobbied for, and gained, a veterans seat on the Alaska Workforce Investment Board to represent the employment and training needs of veterans and transitioning military members.
“He’s an all-around kind of guy and is the type of Reservist you want to have,” praised Bowen.
Tilbury said he appreciated the opportunity to serve with the council’s other veterans, whose service spanned conflicts back to the Korean War.
“Many of these Veterans participated in combat and rescue operations,” he said. “Their stories and service are awe inspiring, as is their passion for improving the lives of our veterans."
Supporting veteran’s issues is not the only way the Minnesota native has fostered community well-being in the “Last Frontier” state. For the past 14 years, Tilbury has worked as a K-12 school guidance counselor in a rural school district that includes about nine interior villages, all but two of which are accessible only by plane, boat or snow machine. In that role, he also supports the many home school students in the state’s Raven Homeschool Support Program.
Tilbury has also been very active in his Air Force career. He came to the IMA program from the Alaska Air National Guard in 2007 and first served with U.S. Forces Korea as a joint airlift officer supporting non-combatant evacuations of the Korean Peninsula. Today, as an exercise planner for PACOM, he supports multinational exercises Keen Edge, Key Resolve, Ulchi Focus Guardian and Cobra Gold.
Cobra Gold, which ran Feb. 13 to 24, was his most recent mission. Tilbury spent the two weeks working alongside his Thai counterpart in the exercise control group, or white cell. The white cell is responsible for injecting scenarios into the exercise that participants must navigate. He said that, in addition to being a great way to escape the long, dark and cold Alaskan winter for a couple weeks, the exercises are a great opportunity to collaborate with military members from partner nations. Cobra Gold, for example, is held in Thailand and also includes forces from Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea.
Tilbury said the exercises allow the participants to share expertise, learn to solve problems together and build camaraderie across militaries. Cultural and language barriers present some challenges, he said, but they are nothing the team’s singular focus doesn’t overcome.
“The differences are smoothed over by a sense of team work and mission and everyone comes together under that,” he said, adding that another benefit of the exercises is goodwill and friendships that form over time.
The IMA said he will continue working with some of the same partner nation officers in the coming months and years at planning events and exercises.
The flexibility of the IMA program is one of Tilbury’s favorite benefits of the unique Reserve program. IMAs are part of the Individual Reserve, which also includes participating individual ready reservists. They are assigned to active-component organizations and government agencies all around the world. IMAs work with their assigned unit to develop a custom duty schedule that often accommodates both the reservist’s and unit’s needs. He has also enjoyed working in the joint environments at PACOM and USFK.
He also likes working in the joint environment he has experienced at PACOM and during a recent, voluntary six-month tour at U.S. Central Command Headquarters, where he participated in some of the strategic planning as things were intensifying in Iraq and Syria. He said the ability to witness everything first hand as it was unfolding drove home the importance of the U.S. mission in the region and the importance of U.S. allies.
To learn more about the Individual Mobilization Augmentee program, visit www.arpc.afrc.af.mil/HQRIO.aspx.