V.S. South High School grad repeats as base's 'Officer of the Year'

A Valley Stream native and South High School graduate was named “Officer of the Year” by his United States Air Force unit last week.

Air Force Capt. William F. Cosgrove, a 2004 South High School graduate and Hofstra University alumni, was selected for an award recognizing his technical work on the security of computer systems for an Air Force base in North Carolina. Cosgrove received the 628th Air Base Wing’s 2014 Information Dominance Outstanding Company Grade Officer of the Year award for the third straight year.

Cosgrove oversaw six Synchronous Optical Network nodes and managed 12 Defense Information Systems Network circuits, leading his wing to the Air Mobility Command’s Defense Information System Agency Facility of the Year Award.

According to his unit, he was essential in managing the upgrade of 420 network devices, securing 25,000 network ports, implementing 46,000 patches and eliminating 136,000 cyber vulnerabilities, allowing his joint base in Charleston, North Carolina to achieve an “excellent” rating from the Command Cyber Readiness Inspection. Those efforts allowed the Charleston base to become the first base in the Department of Defense to pass the inspection under the most stringent standard used.

Cosgove is currently serving as an executive officer with the 628th Mission Support Group, Joint Base Charleston. The base, which includes more than 20,000 active-duty, reserve and civilian personnel, provides base support for roughly 80,000 personnel, including active duty and reserve military members, civilian government employees and contractors, military family members and retirees.

Cosgrove has served in the military for six years. He is the son of Paddy Day, of Alpharetta, Georgia and Katie Cosgrove, of Valley Stream.