Decorated Army colonel retires

DOWNEY - Col. Steven J. Mains was retired form the United States Army recently in a ceremony conducted by General David H. Petraeus at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., after 30 years of service.Upon graduation from Warren High School in 1976, Mains reported to the United States Military Academy at West Point where he graduated in 1980, commissioned a Second Lieutenant in Armor. He spent his early career in Calvary units, including the Division Cavalry Squadron for the 1st Cavalry Division, at Ft. Hood, Tex., and defending the German border with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Fulda, Germany. After returning to the United States, he served in the Directorate of Combat Developments at the United States Army Armor Center at Ft. Knox. During this tour of duty, Mains earned a Masters of Science degree in Systems Management from the University of Denver. During Operation Desert Storm, he volunteered as an individual replacement and served as the Plans Officer, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armor Division during the invasion of Iraq and subsequently served as its Logistics Officer directing the redeployment from Iraq to Germany. Upon return to Germany, he served as S3 (Operations) and Executive Officer, 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor, after which he assumed the duties as NATO Plans Officer, V Corps, in Frankfurt, and later attended the British Army Staff College. Subsequent assignments included positions in the Office of the Chief of Staff, Army (Program Analysis and Evaluation) and as Director of Analysis, Joint Experimentation (J9) at Joint Forces Command. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, Mains volunteered to deploy the Joint Center for Operation Analysis to collect and disseminate lessons from ongoing combat operations. While running the Joint Center for Operational Analysis, he deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Kosovo. As Director of the Center for Army Lessons Learned from 2006 to 2008, Mains developed and implemented a collaborative system for sharing lessons learned in real time that now connects more than 70 locations across the states, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, the Horn of Africa and the Philippines. He focused on improving information operations across the force and wrote the Division Commander's Information Operations Handbook. Since November 2008, Mains was responsible for all Psychological Operations, Computer Network Operations, Military Deception, Electronic Warfare and Operations Security for U.S. Central Command. Mains earned a Masters of Science in Computational Operations Research and a Doctorate in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. He is a graduate of the Indian National Defence College in Delhi, India. His awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster) Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (two Oak Leaf Clusters), Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal), Valorous Unit Award, Parachutist Badge and Ranger Tab. He is married to the former Maureen Hofferer, a 1977 graduate of Warren High School. Their son, Peter, is a software engineer in Phoenix, and their daughter, Caroline, is a graduate student at the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Ind. His parents are Ralph (Pete) and Ginie Mains, of Downey.

********** Published: July 22, 2010 - Volume 9 - Issue 14