ARMED FORCES

ARMED FORCES

PROMOTION

1996 Chaney graduate

Youngstown

Air Force meteorologist Maj. Kristopher Kripchak has been promoted to his current rank with the 14th Weather Squadron at the Federal Climate Complex in Asheville, N.C.

Kripchak, a 1996 graduate of Chaney High School, earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Akron in 2000. He earned a master’s degree in climatology in 2008 from the Naval postgraduate school in Monterey, Calif. He previously served a three-year tour of duty in Alaska.

As a flight commander, he provides quality control, storage and tailoring of earth-space environmental data and is pursuing a second master’s degree through the Air Force Command and Staff College.

Kripchak and his wife, Kay, live in Fletcher, N.C. He is the son of Joe and Ethel Kripchak of Youngstown.

VETERANS

Sought in fraud case

COLUMBUS

A man who falsely identified himself as “Bobby Thompson,” director of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, is wanted by Ohio authorities, and Attorney General Richard Cordray is turning to Ohio veterans — the group that the imposter cheated — to help find him.

“There are almost 1 million veterans who live in Ohio,” Cordray said. “Those are men and women who put their life on the line for our country. The man who presented himself as ‘Bobby Thompson’ traded on their honorable reputation and service to benefit himself.”

On Oct. 13, a Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Thompson and an associate, Blanca Contreras, on one count of aggravated theft, money laundering and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity based on their misappropriation of millions of dollars from a fraudulent charity.

On Oct. 15, Contreras was arrested in North Carolina, and she is expected to appear in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland this week. Thompson remains at large.

ADVANCED TRAINING

Army Reserve leaders

Two local students have graduated from the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Leader Development and Assessment Course at Fort Lewis, Tacoma, Wash.

They are Thomas K. Vierra III and Sarah A. Wilmouth.

Cadets in their junior and senior year of college must complete the leadership-development course. Upon successful completion of the course, the ROTC program and graduation from college, cadets are commissioned as second lieutenants in the Army, National Guard or Army Reserve.

Vierra, a 2007 graduate of Hickory High School, Hermitage, Pa., is the son of Thomas K. and Christine E. Vierra of Hermitage.

Wilmouth is a student at Youngstown State University and a 2005 graduate of Austintown Fitch High School. She is the daughter of John B. and Cornelia I. Sledd of Canfield.

BASIC TRAINING

Air Force: Airman James M. Graves (Keystone Charter School High School, Greenville, Pa., ’10), son of James M. and Elizabeth A. Graves, Jamestown, Pa.; Airman 1st Class Dylan W. Dey (Blackhawk High School, Chippewa, Pa., ’10), son of Sandra Dey of Darlington, Pa., and Bill Dey of New Waterford.

Items of note for the Armed Forces Digest can be sent to The Vindicator, Regional Desk, P.O. Box 780, Youngstown 44501-0780 or e-mailed to news@vindy.com