Schenectady Resident Shawn Peno Promoted to Senior Master Sergeant in the New York Air National Guard

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New York Air National Guard Senior Master Sgt. Shawn Peno receives his new rank from his wife Joan and father Peter during a promotion ceremony on April 10.

LATHAM, NY (04/16/2015)(readMedia)-- Schenectady resident Shawn Peno, a veteran of the Iraq War, has been promoted to Senior Master Sergeant in the New York Air National Guard.

Peno, an Air Force meteorologist, served with the New York Army National Guard's Troy-based 42nd Infantry Division in Tikrit, Iraq in 2005, and also supported the division during the New York National Guard response to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

While support the New York National Guard response in New York City he also provided weather data to the 102nd Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard which was conducting combat air patrols over New York in the wake of the airborne suicide attacks.

This is the second time Peno has attained the rank of Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force. In 2009 he took an administrative reduction in grade so he could serve as operations non-commissioned officer in the New York National Guard Joint Operations Center.

He currently serves a knowledge manager and staff weather officer for the New York National Guard Domestic Operations Directorate.

Peno enlisted in the Air Force in 1991. He became an Air Force weather observer in 1992.

He has spent most of his career supporting United States Army and Army National Guard units, serving at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with United States Army Europe Headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany and with the Army's 1st Armored Division, and other units at various locations around Hungary, and in Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

He also provided weather support to 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, Georgia.

In 1997, Peno transferred to the Air National Guard where he joined the 202nd Weather Flight of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. In July 2000, while still a member of the 202nd Weather Flight, then Staff Sergeant Peno started weather forecaster training at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. Upon completion of Forecaster training in March of 2001, he remained at Keesler to be a weather forecaster for the 45th Airlift Squadron through May 2001.

Peno was assigned as weather officer to the 42nd Infantry Division and mobilized with the unit at Fort Drum New York in June, 2004 and deployed to Iraq with the division.

After returning from Iraq in August 2005, he was a counter forecaster and Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge for E-Flight, 20th Air Support Operations Squadron, Fort Drum, NY. From May 2007 to September 2007 and again in September 2008, Peno was the Staff Weather Officer at the National Guard Bureau Joint Operations Center in Crystal City, Virginia.

From May 2008 until September 2008, he was the Staff Weather Officer at New York National Guard headquarters on a temporary duty basis. In April 2009, began serving with the New York National Guard's Domestic Operations Branch.

Peno's awards include: the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Air Force Achievement Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal with one device, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Armed Forces Service Medal, the Air Force Expeditionary Service Ribbon with Gold Border, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Service Medal.

He currently resides in Schenectady, New York with his wife Joan.