# Buttenhoff honored during DLA Annual Employee Recognition Awards Program

/ Published Dec. 11, 2019
Richmond, Va, 
Air Force Capt Adrian Buttenhoff was honored as the 2019 Defense Logistics Agency’s Company Grade Officer of the Year during a Dec. 6 ceremony held at DLA Headquarters, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Nominees were selected by senior service leaders from each military service.

Originally from Dalton, Georgia, Buttenhoff entered active duty in May 2013 after graduating from the University of Georgia, Athens.

“The Air Force is a great opportunity and when I went to college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” said Buttenhoff.  “The recruiters said there was a need for Japanese language experts and offered me a four-year scholarship to major in the language.” 

She has a Bachelor of Arts in the Japanese Language, is Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act Life Cycle Logistics Level II certified and most recently completed the Air Force Fundamentals of Acquisitions Management Course, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; Joint Logistics/Humanitarian Course, Army Logistics University, Fort Lee, Virginia; and achieved a Global Supply Chain Management certificate from the University of Tennessee’s Executive Development Program in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Buttenhoff’s previous assignments include flight and section commander at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina and flight commander, Logistics Readiness, 607th Material Maintenance Squadron, Daegu Air Base, Republic of Korea and a deployment to Ramstein Air Base in Germany supporting Exercise Austere Challenge 2015.

Buttenhoff, who began her DLA assignment in July 2018, will leave DLA Aviation in July 2020.

In his endorsement letter, DLA Aviation Commander Air Force Brig. Gen. David Sanford said, “Captain Buttenhoff epitomized those rare qualities most sought in today’s military professional: integrity, commitment to the mission and thirst for knowledge.”

He said she made vast contributions to the core mission of DLA Aviation, directly contributing to service warfighting readiness.

Of those contributions Buttenhoff made over the past year, she is most of proud of the role she played on the MC 80 Red Team helping bring the right team members together to help achieve the Air Boss’s mission capable for 80% of the F-16 and F-22 fleets.  She said her role was to help coordinate requirements within the Air Force operations units, industrial depots, the supply chain operations wings and then translated those requirements for the right DLA process owners to fulfill.

When reflecting on her career path to date, Buttenhoff advises junior officers to put mission and people first, and to also take an active role in their own advancement, putting themselves forward for the tough assignments, putting themselves out there to compete against fellow officers, and being deliberate in the career foundation they build to reach their goals. .

Buttenhoff came to DLA Aviation under the Logistics Career Broadening Program that competitively selects logistics, maintenance and acquisitions officers.

“All Air Force first lieutenants and captains in these career fields with four to six years of commissioned service and flight command experience are considered for the program,” she said. “Once selected, officers are sent to a two-year immersion in supply chain management, depot level maintenance, DLA and Air Force Nuclear Warfare Center operations.”

She feels she has benefited with exposure and mentoring from senior leaders during the program. 

“This is the Air Force’s premier developmental program to shape acquisition, supply chain and maintenance leaders with potential to fill future senior leader roles,” she said.