Col. Mark S. Jones receives his last salute as commander of the 517th Training Group during a change of command ceremony held on Soldier Field June 12, 2025.
Assistant Commandant Col. Mark S. Jones relinquished command to Col. Jason Guyette, who took charge of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center’s second highest position on June 12, 2025.
Jones, a 2010 DLIFLC graduate of Modern Standard Arabic and a foreign area officer, explained how returning to DLIFLC and being the assistant commandant was a dream job for him. “Everything that happens here serves one single purpose: generate warrior linguists from all services ready to contribute to our national security.” He also had a special thank you message to the faculty: “Without you, DLI as a language learning enterprise simply does not exist.”
The ceremony was presided over by Air Force Col. Angelina Maguinness, the 17th Training Wing commander at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas.
Col. Angelina Maguiness, the 17th Training Wing commander at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, gives remarks during the change of command ceremony held on Soldier Field June 12, 2025.
“Your leadership has been steady and focused on improving the training and support provided to this community,” Maguinness told Jones of his leadership during her remarks. “You focused on building the linguist warrior Airman, Soldier, Sailor, Marines the nation needs to take care of American citizens.”
She went on to speak about Guyette who, along with assuming the assistant commandant role, will also be the 517th Training Group commander. “His expertise spans intelligence, cyberspace, electronic warfare and cutting-edge research, making him uniquely qualified to lead the 517th Training Group.”
Guyette, prior to coming to DLIFLC, was the commander of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Air Force Element, and chief of strategy and assessments for the Department of Defense’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.
Col. Jason Guyette, the new assistant commandant of DLIFLC as well as the 517th Training Group commander, accepts the guidon from Col. Angelina Maguiness, the 17th Training Wing commander at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, during a ceremony held June 12, 2025.
As Jones said in his remarks, Guyette’s background “working with linguists puts you in a perfect position to perfect and lead.”
“We are not just teaching and learning languages here,” Guyette told the audience gathered for the ceremony on Soldier Field. “We’re really cultivating insight that will provide decision advantage, strengthen partnerships and increase information superiority in the complex multicultural environment of the future.”
He added, “Foreign language education is not a luxury, it is a strategic capability.”
