WCS Grad Named Colonel

Erin Dorrance, formerly Erin Blanchard, was recently promoted to the rank of full Colonel during a ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.

Dorrance is the daughter of Charlotte Blanchard and the late Craig Blanchard of Hubbardsville, Dorrance, a native of Oriskany Falls, is a 1997 graduate of Waterville High School.

Following graduation, she spent a year as a Rotary Foreign Exchange Student in Costa Rica, where she wrote a monthly column for the Waterville Times titled “Pura Vida in Costa Rica.”

Upon returning to the United States, Dorrance earned her degree from the University of New Mexico with a double major in Communications and Spanish, and was commissioned as an Air Force Public Affairs Officer in 2002.

She earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations from Troy University in 2005.

Dorrance served 10 years on active duty and continues to serve as a member of the Air Force Reserves.

In her civilian capacity, she works as a Department of War civilian at U.S. Central Command, also at MacDill Air Force Base.

Her distinguished military career includes a variety of assignments both in the United States and abroad:

*Public Affairs Deputy Chief, 6th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill AFB, Fla.

*Public Affairs Chief, 86th Airlift Wing, Ramstein AB, Germany

*Public Affairs Individual Mobilization Augmentee to the Chief of Public Affairs Plans, Air Combat Command, Langley AFB, Va.

*IMA to the Chief of Public Affairs, Patrick Space Force Base, Fla.

*Military Deputy Chief of Congressional Affairs, U.S. Southern Command, Fla. *Public Affairs Chief of Media, U.S. Special Operations Command, Fla.

*IMA to Space Strategies/Analysis Division Chief, Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

*Currently, IMA to the Chief of Public Affairs, U.S. Forces Japan, Yokota Air Base, Japan.