LEXINGTON, Va. – VMI's 2022-23 All-Southern Conference Faculty-Staff Team members, Col. Tom Timmes and Sergeant Major Tom Sowers, were honored at halftime of Wednesday's men's basketball game.

Col. Tom Timmes, VMI (faculty)
Col. Tom Timmes, a 1992 VMI graduate, is a professional engineer who served for over 25 years in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps and is a professor in the VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering department. His academic and research interests include water quality, electrocoagulation, military field drinking water, water treatment plant optimization, and water system vulnerability assessments. As an Army Environmental Engineer, he conducted extensive drinking water and wastewater system characterizations and public health threat assessments throughout the U.S. and overseas. He commanded the Headquarters Company of the U.S. Army Chemical Activity-Pacific on Johnston Atoll during its closure as a chemical agent demilitarization site and served as a Jumpmaster with the 82nd Airborne Division. He taught a variety of academic subjects on the faculty at the US Military Academy (West Point) for six years. Timmes commanded the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research in Fort Detrick, Maryland, and served as the Director for Environmental Health Sciences and Engineering at the Army Public Health Center before retiring from Active Duty to join the VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. As a volunteer diving coach, Timmes has helped the VMI men's and women's teams grow in number and skills and provide critical points to the swim/dive team scores. Timmes dove for VMI during the 1988-89 season and finished the season as the Tri-State Champion for both the 1-Meter and 3-Meter diving boards. His "rat" year total score for 11-dives on the 1-Meter board remains in the VMI record books.
 
Sergeant Major Tom Sowers, VMI (staff)
Sergeant Major Tom Sowers retired from the United States Marine Corps in June 2018 and assumed his duties as the Institute and Corps Sergeant Major for VMI. The 30-year veteran of the Marine Corps assumed much of the day-to-day oversight of the Corps of Cadets and is responsible for administering the New Cadet Military Training Program and overseeing cadet leaders, among many other duties. Sowers came to VMI after having served as 1st Marine Division Sergeant Major at Camp Pendleton, California, a position he held since 2015. He served five combat tours: one in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, one in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and three in Operation Enduring Freedom. His awards include the meritorious service medal, the bronze star medal with combat distinguishing device and one gold star, the Navy and Marine Corps commendation medal with combat distinguishing device and two gold stars, the Navy and Marine Corps achievement medal with three gold stars, and the combat action ribbon with two gold stars.