Colonel Merritt to assume command

Posted in: September 2010
By News Journal
Sep 30, 2010 - 1:49:06 PM

Command of the Delaware Air National Guard will change Sunday as its current leader leaves with a promotion.

Col. J. Wayne Merritt will assume command from Maj. Gen. Hugh Broomall in a 10:30 a.m. ceremony at the Guard's New Castle Airport base.

Maj. Gen. Frank Vavala, adjutant general of the Delaware National Guard, will officiate at the event, which will include Merritt's promotion to brigadier general.

As "Assistant Adjutant General for Air, Headquarters, Delaware Air National Guard," he will command 1,000 airmen and eight C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. He also will advise Vavala on all matters involving the Air Guard. The unit and the 1,500-soldier Delaware Army National Guard comprise the Delaware National Guard.

Merritt is known in the Guard as "a very low-key guy," relating as well to airmen as top officers, said Tech. Sgt. Benjamin J. Matwey, a Guard spokesman, adding that his leadership is respected in both Guard branches from his years involved in planning joint operations from Hurricane Katrina relief to service in last winter's snow.

Merritt's annual salary for the new part-time post is $24,507.

"The path General Broomall set is a good path and we have outstanding people in the Guard, truly outstanding," Merritt said. "As we will continue to face challenges, we will adjust to those changes as time goes on."

Wilmington native Merritt, 60, graduated from De La Warr High School in 1967, the University of Delaware in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in political science and Wilmington University in 2000 with a master's degree in human resources management.

Before his commission, he was an enlisted airman in the Air Guard from 1969 to 1982. Merritt has worked for New Castle County for 39 years, retiring in 1996 as a police major in charge of the operations branch, then tapped as executive assistant to the county executive. He is now the Department of Special Services' senior manager of operations, a post he will keep.

He and his wife of 39 years, Sheren, live in Hockessin. They have three grown children and seven grandchildren.

"We're very, very proud of his accomplishment and we're sharing the excitement of a very prestigious promotion," said Rick Gregory, county chief administrative officer. "It's certainly a testimony to his leadership skills and abilities, and his years with the county also speak to that. ... He's just one of those people that you can always count on."

There also is excitement for Broomall. The U.S. Army War College graduate and former congressional military fellow to Sen. William V. Roth Jr. rose to be the director's special assistant at the U.S. Air National Guard in Arlington, Va.

"It's the first time anyone from Delaware has ever done this," Matwey said.