CSM Dean J. Keveles
US Army, Retired

Dean J. Keveles was born on 27 April, 1964, in Brooklyn, NY.  Upon graduation from High School in 1984, he joined the US Army and became a Fire Support Specialist (13F). He served in his MOS in three divisions including the 4th ID, the 2nd ID and the 24th ID at multiple levels including FSO driver, platoon FO, company, battalion and brigade FIST Chiefs, COLT team Chief and, after completing OH-58D Flight School training, he served in aviation units in the US and Germany as an Aerial Fire Support Observer. While assigned to the 24th Aviation Regiment he flew more than 150 combat flight hours during Desert Storm as an AFSO, earning the Air Medal. He participated in countless rotations to the National Training Center in his various FIST assignments, as well as long hours along the DMZ in Korea and a major exercise in Turkey, where his team was recognized as the top performing FIST team. Keveles final assignments as a 13F were as the 75th FA Brigade Senior Brigade Targeting NCO, to include serving on special assignment in support of USFK CJG-3/5/7, where he wrote a portion of the RSOI SOP for 8th Army. He also served as the Team Chief/Senior Instructor on the CECOM AFATDS New Equipment Training Team for all Division and below AFATDS fieldings. Besides his FIST assignments he served in progressively higher leadership levels as a Platoon Sergeant, First Sergeant and ultimately as a CSM, the latter as a battalion CSM, once with an FA battalion in the 4th ID based at Ft. Carson, including a year’s deployment to Iraq, and as the CSM for an FA training battalion at Ft. Sill. His success as a CSM led to his selection as the Commandant of the FA NCO Academy at Ft. Sill. With the move of the US Army ADA School to Ft. Sill, Keveles merged the Air Defense Artillery NCOES courses into the Field Artillery NCO Academy, making it one NCO Academy for both branches as a part of the newly formed Fires Center of Excellence and earned a TRADOC Institution of Excellence Accreditation rating. In addition to all required courses, where he subsequently was a honor graduate or the top graduate, he also completed NATO Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) Course, where he and his teammate from the UK graduated as the top of 23 international teams. Since his retirement in 2011, he has continued to serve the FA as the civilian operations officer in the Directorate of Training & Doctrine. Concurrently, he has served on the Sergeants Major Association and U.S. Field Artillery Association Board of Directors, where he has leveraged his inspirational briefing capabilities to attract countless numbers of field artillery students to join the Association.