SFC Malec is currently the Station Commander of AFN Bavaria. Hailing from, what he likes to call, the “funny” sounding town of Petoskey, MI.  SFC Malec joined the Army in 1989 and shipped off to Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood Missouri and attended A.I.T. when it was still at “Ft. Benjamin Harrison, IN.”  His Army adventure began at the Southern Command Network at Ft. Clayton Panama where he fine tuned both his Soldier and broadcasting skills through intense on the job training as a News Reporter and weekend show host until he PCSd to FORSCOM Public Affairs HQs in 1990.  Knowing that his fellow Soldiers were serving with pride during Operation Desert Shield/Storm, SFC Malec volunteered to deploy with them.  He deployed to Saudi Arabia and then to Camp Doha in Kuwait city where he became the morning show host from July to November 1991.  Just two months after his first desert tour, SFC Malec found himself packing for his next assignment that would take him to “The Land of the Morning Calm,” Korea where he served as Station Manager for a two month period as a Specialist at AFN Taegu.  SFC Malec then served as a Public Affairs Specialist at Fort Gordon, GA from 1993 to 1996 before moving to AFN South in Vicenza, Italy where he became a “jack of all trades.”  He did everything from performing reporting/newscaster duties, to running the radio station, and spearheading broadcast missions that took him to the Balkans, where he re-established AFN service in Tazar, Hungary in November, 1998.  In 1999, SFC Malec returned to Taegu Korea for his second tour where he served as News Director for Area IV, the largest coverage area in the Republic.  In 2002, after six consecutive years overseas, SFC Malec returned to the U.S. to San Antonio, TX at the Army and Air Force Hometown News Service.  There, he took on duties as Radio News Chief marketing numerous broadcast products to civilian radio stations across the country.  In 2005, SFC Malec moved on to what would be his next huge challenge: becoming one of the Army’s first Brigade Public Affairs Officers at the 4th Infantry Division’s Fires Brigade, AKA “The DIVARTY,” which re-designated as the 41st Fires Brigade on April 16th, 2007.  The brigade deployed to Baghdad, Iraq from December 05 to November 06.  SFC Malec is married to the former Amy Pflug of Norwalk, CA, since August of 1992.  They have two children:  A daughter Elizabeth, 11, and a son named Adam, nine.