AARP staffer and FL National Guard officer promoted to higher rank

Tallahassee, Fla. – AARP Associate State Director Colleen Krepstekies, an officer in the Florida National Guard, has been promoted to major after years of service on active duty with the U.S. Army and a return to service for the Florida National Guard.

Krepstekies, 44, was recognized this week at the Florida Governor’s Mansion by friends and former colleagues from the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs (FDVA).  In a brief ceremony at the mansion Wednesday,  Lt. Col. Glenn Sutphin,  U.S. Army (Ret.) executive director of the department, joined Maj. John Haynes, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) in pinning Krepstekies’ new major’s insignia to her Army dress uniform.

Also joining the brief ceremony was former Florida Rep. Jimmie T. Smith, former chairman of the state House Subcommittee on Veterans, Military and Veterans Affairs.  Smith now serves as a Citrus County Commissioner.

Earlier Wednesday, Maj. Haynes, inductee into the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame in 2013, participated in the pinning.  Maj. Haynes began his military service in World War II and also served in Korea and Vietnam.  He is a recipient of the Purple Heart.

Before joining AARP earlier this year, Maj. Krepstekies served as director of Legislative and Cabinet Affairs for the FDVA.

As a U.S. Army officer on active service, she served 11 years in multiple assignments, including two combat tours in Iraq.  While serving a second tour in Iraq in 2005, Colleen led 170 soldiers in a logistics unit.  She also deployed to Guantanamo Bay and Kosovo and served in two overseas assignments to Germany and Korea.

In late 2014, she rejoined the military in Florida’s Army National Guard.

Maj. Krepstekies now commands the 107 ^th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment in St. Augustine.  The detachment consists of 22 broadcast and photojournalists who provide military public affairs coverage to the Florida National Guard.  Maj. Krepstekies also recently graduated in the top 20 percent of her class at the military’s Defense Information School at Fort Meade, MD.

In her AARP role, Maj. Krepstekies leads communications and media relations efforts in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area and elsewhere in Central Florida.

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