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ASU Welcomes New ROTC Commander

June 27, 2011

Lt. Col. Stephen W. Magnan has arrived on the Angelo State University campus as the new commander of its ROTC Detachment 847, replacing the recently retired Col. Mike Buck.

Magnan is the senior Air Force officer on campus and holds dual responsibilities as detachment commander and head of the Department of Aerospace Studies. He is responsible for recruiting, training, motivating and educating Air Force officer candidates. His immediate plans are to continue his department’s positive recruiting efforts and strong relationship with Goodfellow Air Force Base.

“My goal is always to make some improvements, but I’m not going to implement change just for the sake of change,” Magnan said. “The Air Force has raised the bar very high, but this detachment remains highly competitive. The staff is also fantastic, and I’m looking forward to working with them. I couldn’t have asked for a better detachment to take us into the future.”

A career intelligence officer, Magnan is also excited by the challenge of offering ASU cadets a different perspective of the Air Force than his predecessor, Col. Buck, who was a fighter pilot.

“The Air Force mission is still to ‘fly, fight and win,’” Magnan said. “But over the last 10 years, the Air Force has also filled a lot of ground positions for the Army. My last two deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq were as an augmentee to the Army, so I bring a lot of experience with a different type of support the Air Force has been providing to the war effort.”

“On the flip side,” he added, “a lot of the young folks want to fly, so they’ll want to talk to a pilot. That is where my networking comes in. I have a lot of pilot friends and Col. Buck is still in the area. If cadets want to talk flying, I can get them in touch with the right people. If they want to talk about what we do to support the Army in the current fight, I can talk to that. Bottom line, our goal is to make sure we commission the best-prepared officers for the Air Force.”

A 1992 Angelo State ROTC graduate, Magnan enlisted in the Air Force in 1983 as a Russian cryptologic linguist, serving seven years in that capacity and reaching the rank of staff sergeant. While stationed at Goodfellow AFB in 1990, he enrolled at ASU and joined the ROTC detachment, graduating in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in communication and his commission as a second lieutenant.

In addition to his tours in the Middle East, Magnan has served at bases throughout the U.S. and at Headquarters U.S. Air Force at the Pentagon. His assignments have ranged from chief of the Intelligence Operations Branch at the National Air Intelligence Center to commander of the Intelligence Flight of the 92nd Operations Support Squadron at Fairchild AFB in Washington and staff tours at Headquarters USAF. Prior to his arrival at ASU, he served as director of exercise support for the 505th Distributed Warfare Group at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, N.M.

Magnan’s commendations include the Meritorious Service Medal with five oak leaf clusters, National Defense Service Medal with one bronze star, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with one bronze star, Iraq Campaign Medal with one bronze star, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the NATO Medal with one bronze star.

In addition to his ASU bachelor’s degree, Magnan holds a master’s degree in strategic intelligence from the Joint Military Intelligence College and a master’s degree in military operational art and science from the Air Command and Staff College. He has also completed Squadron Officer School and the Air War College.