Shawn Peno, a Schenectay resident, promoted to Chief Master Sgt. in New York Air National Guard

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Wife Joan Peno and father Peter Peno tack new stripes onto Chief Master Sgt. Shawn Peno on Dec. 2 at Division of Military and Naar Affairs Headquarters. (Sgt. Major Corine Lombardo)

LATHAM, NY (12/02/2016)(readMedia)-- Shawn Peno, a Schenectady resident and a veteran of the Iraq War, was promoted to Chief Master Sgt.-the highest Air Force enlisted rank-during a ceremony a Division of Military and Naval Affairs Headquarters on Friday, Dec. 2.

Peno, a 25-year veteran of the Air Force and the Air National Guard, currently serves as the top non-commissioned officer in the New York National Guard's domestic operations section which includes more than 800 Citizen Soldiers and Airmen.

Peno is an Air Force meteorologist whose duties have placed him directly in support of both Active Army and Army National Guard units. He has served at Fort Belvoir, Virginia; Heidelberg, Germany, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Joint Base Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Fort Drum, New York; Tikrit, Iraq; the former Yugoslavia; and National Guard Bureau Headquarters in Arlington, Va.

Army units he has supported include Headquarters, U.S. Army Europe; Seventh Army; 18th Airborne Corps, the 1st Armored Division, the 1st Infantry Division, 10th Mountain Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, the New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division; and the New York Army National Guard's 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

He deployed to Iraq in 2005 as the meteorologist for the 42nd Infantry Division in Tikrit, and also worked in Baghdad. He has also served in the former Yugoslavia as part of UN protection missions in Croatia.

Peno began serving full-time at New York National Guard headquarters in 2009 as senior watch controller in the New York National Guard's Joint Operations Center. He has served in a number of other positions since then to include Joint Operations Center non-commissioned officer in charge and joint domestic operations knowledge manager.

In his current job he is the senior enlisted advisor to the New York National Guard's director of domestic operations.

His awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Air Force Achievement Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Air Force Expeditionary Service Medal, the Master Command and Control Badge and the Master Meteorologist Badge.

His new stripes were pinned on by his wife Joan and father Peter Peno, a former member of the New York Army National Guard, during the ceremony.