Huntsville Update
Written by Jennifer Devlin, MSMF Huntsville Staff Writer
The Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Department of the Army Civilian of the Year dinner was recently held at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. The event sponsored by the Redstone/Huntsville Chapter of the AUSA included three categories: Management/ Executive, Professional/Technical and Supporting Staff. There were a total of 19 nominations.
Rick Turner, from the Management/Executive category, won the AUSA DA Civilian of the Year Award. Nominated by Ronnie Chronister, Turner was quick to give credit to fellow employees at the U.S. Army Test, Measurement and Diagnostic Equipment Activity (USATA/TMDE), U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, where he has been serving as the executive director for over two years.
Turner said following the presentation, “The level of commitment here is outstanding … I could be replaced. But the team—it’s just amazing dedication I have not seen surpassed.” According to the nomination, Turner “leads a work force of over 600 professionals responsible for the U.S. Army’s calibration, metrology, and repair mission at 58 sites worldwide.”
Turner was honored for his continued support to DoD organizations, and meeting and sustaining various requirements, and exceeding set goals. He also implemented a Climate Survey Action Plan in partnership with USATA employees designed to improve communications and employee career progression.
Other nominees for this year’s DA Civilian of the Year award in Turner’s category included: Todd Hutto, Joe Davis, Barry Pike, Timothy McRae, John Wachs, William Andrews Jr., Janet Fletcher, Randall Kline and Stan Sherrod.
Erich Erker, chief of the Aviation Maintenance Branch of the Army Aviation Technical Test Center, won in the Professional/Technical Civilian of the Year category. Other nominees in this category were: Barbara Baugh, Barbara Cantrell, Carol Kaminer, Deborah Chinea, George “Mike” Nadler, Penny Koger-Thomas, and Dr. Kenneth Whigham.
A Support Staff Award was presented to Carolyn Caudle, assistant to the commanding general, AMCOM.
MDA Director Addresses Luncheon Celebrating Women in Defense
Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), addressed over 400 attendees of the Women in Defense Luncheon. Discussing the topic of ballistic missile threats, O’Reilly cautioned against assuming that China and Russia were the only countries who possessed ballistic missile capabilities. The threat of a missile attack is growing, according to the MDA director, with over 20 countries currently owning missiles and/ or missile launchers. Due to this proliferation of weaponry ownership, the international political and military climate is becoming increasingly unpredictable.
To meet this rising concern, MDA is developing systems to meet a variety of needs. From the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) to Patriot, to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense Program, O’Reilly is committed to seeing different systems work together in order to help protect deployed forces and allies.
Testing of these systems will continue, both in flight and ground tests. Learning from failures and successes, MDA will continue the path to progress, and the director is showing his commitment to growing the agency through his desire to see young engineers join the ranks. Implementing mentoring programs and the training of new engineers will strengthen the agency as well as the stand against foreign capabilities.
Boeing and SMDC/ ARSTRAT Join Forces for IAMD
Boeing and the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command/ Army Forces Strategic Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT) signed a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA). This agreement is a “research and development effort to coordinate and fuse multiple types of sensor data in a secure environment for integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) and space situational awareness concept exploration,” according to Boeing.
In March the two organizations began exchanging preliminary technical information. According to Michael Schexnayder, deputy to the commander for research, development and acquisition at SMDC/ ARSTRAT, the teams will “support the analyses of a multitude of space and IAMD issues.”
David Pope, director of Boeing Command and Control Enterprise Solutions, has given Boeing’s positive affirmation of the agreement. Pope affirms that such a partnership will support our nation’s need for secure, cross-domain data exchange.
Involvement goes beyond Boeing and SMDC/ARSTRAT; a memorandum of agreement between SMDC/ARSTRAT and the U.S. Strategic Command will also provide tools, information and expertise that will enhance the CRADA’s outcome with a service-oriented architecture that, when used, will validate ballistic missile defense concepts using modeling and simulation. ♦