Recognizing the Best
Written by Jennifer Devlin
As his first official duty, Robertson presented special recognition awards to a variety of community leaders. Showcasing some of Huntsville’s finest leaders in the space and missile community, awards were given for technical achievement as well as service excellence, both in government and contractor categories. With a dozen awardees from both governmental and contracting categories, such recognition affirms the recipients’ contributions to testing and development of air, space and missile defense systems.
Each awardee was presented a plaque by outgoing ASMDA President Kuffner and Lieutenant General Kevin Campbell, commanding general of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/ U.S. Army Forces Strategic Command (USASMDC/ARSTRAT). Six of the awards were given in recognition of government employees, both civilian and military.
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, GOVERNMENT CATEGORY
For the 2008 Technical Achievement Award in the Government Category, the following three awardees were selected: William Trowbridge, Major Richard Harris and Clifford Geohagan.
The first awardee, William Trowbridge, works with the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) as the deputy for the Capabilities Development Group, in the Missile Defense Agency’s Combined Test Force, Test Operations Division. During his time in this position, Trowbridge’s leadership and technical expertise has produced sustained contributions and has positively impacted our nation’s space and missile defense initiatives.
Major Richard Harris, AN/TPY-2 assistant product manager for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Sensors Directorate, X-Band Radar Project Office, was recognized for his commitment to synchronizing technical requirements and integrating operations between MDA, European Command and Israeli officials during deployment. Such integration is critical to mission timeliness and success, and Harris’ leadership and dedication was cited as a key component to the success of the mission.
The final recipient of the Technical Achievement Award, Government Category, was Clifford Geohagan, intelligence analyst, Missile and Space Intelligence Center, Offensive Missile Systems Office, Ballistic Missile Technical Analysis Division. Geohagan’s dedication to the flight tests for the MDA Stellar Demon (FTM-11A) in August 2007 and the FTT-10 in September 2008 produced technical support essential to mission success, and his participation was vital to the missile defense community. Not only was his dedication to these test flights recognized, he was commended for his commitment to these programs as they are above and beyond his assigned duties with ballistic missile radar data analysis work. Geohagan’s work ethic and expertise were summed up by Robertson, who remarked that “he is the embodiment of a ballistic missile signature expert.”
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, CONTRACTOR CATEGORY
The winner for the Contractor Category, 2008 Technical Achievement Award was Jack Moore, Northrop Grumman, Ballistic Missile Defense System Ground Test Systems Engineering and Analysis lead, Missile Defense Agency Combined Test Force, Test Operations Division. His multi-faceted role in the Ground Test GT-03 included: test event architect, test planner, prime analysis manager, and technical oversight manager. He was also the test execution lead on GTD-03, Fast Shield, Fast CAAT-Ea, and was the GT-03 technical advisor. Through his leadership, the GT-03 Campaign was an overwhelming success.
SERVICE EXCELLENCE AWARD, GOVERNMENT CATEGORY
The second round of awards was given to outstanding leaders providing exemplary service in the government and contracting arenas. The three recipients of the Service Excellence Award, for the Government Category were Lieutenant Colonel Robert F. Olsen, Coy Perry and David Blazosky.
The first recipient was Lieutenant Colonel Robert Olsen, director, Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Operations Support Group-Alaska. Olsen supports the STRATCOM mission by making sure the region’s GMD-managed components are ready to carry out the operational missile defense plans, and he also acts as a representative in the region for Brigadier General Gary Connor, program director, Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Joint Program Office, Missile Defense Agency. Olsen is the point person on location for any GMD support of warfighter operations, and supports the missile defense complex at Fort Greely, Alaska. This is a pivotal role, as Fort Greely is the “centerpiece of GMD’s deployed assets” according to Robertson. (Lieutenant Colonel Olsen was unable to attend the luncheon; Colonel Jesse Barber accepted the award for Olsen.)
The second awardee was Coy Perry, chief, Advanced Technology Division, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Technical Center. As a result of his 27 years of dedication to government service, Perry is regarded as a subject matter expert concerning material science. Perry is now managing the Composites and Advanced Materials Program, a joint effort between SMDC, MDA and AMRDEC focused on the development of new materials for both missiles and missile defense applications. His recognition in this award spans far beyond this one project, with Robertson mentioning Perry’s dedication across a wide spectrum of responsibilities.
The final awardee of the 2008 Service Excellence Award in the Government Category was David Blazosky, system mission manager, Missile Defense Agency, Combined Test Force, Test Operations Division. For the past five years, his main focus has been the BMDS. He has coordinated test objectives from the warfighter, the Operational Test Agency and MDA/DEE as well as assisting nine government offices as they controlled 11 hardware-in-the-loop labs. Blazosky was responsible for making sure the test architectures and ground tests were acceptable to the customer. His dedication has produced multiple test runs with a 90 percent or higher success rate. As systems mission manager, he and the ground test team completed three hardware-in-the-loop tests in 2008.
SERVICE EXCELLENCE AWARD, CONTRACTOR CATEGORY
The final group of awards for Service Excellence was presented to the three industry winners: Chris Chartrand, Robert Cashion and Dennis Kater.
Chris Chartrand, chief engineer, MDA Target Test Operations. Chartrand, an employee of Miltec, a Ducommun company, was the first to be recognized in this category. He was presented an award for his willingness to complete any necessary task in order to accomplish the Ground Based Mid-Course Defense program’s goals. His support of flight tests keeps the MDA’s mission a priority, and he was commended for his dedication amid the scrutiny of his workload by hundreds of analysts, reviewers and leaders.
Second to receive the Service Excellence Award was Robert Cashion, Missile Defense Agency, Sensors Directorate, X-Band Radar Project Office. Cashion is employed by Dynetics Inc. Throughout his 38 years of service excellence, Cashion has contributed to the development of the family of radars, beginning with the Ground-Based Radar Project Office, transitioning through a series of programs and currently serving in the Ballistic Missile Defense System under the Missile Defense Agency. His knowledge and technical skill were commended.
Finally, Dennis Kater, Joint Function Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense’s Allied Integration Team was presented with the 2008 Service Excellence Award. As an employee of Northrop Grumman, TASC, Kater was recognized as the cornerstone of JFCC IMD’s Allied Integration Team. He is credited with over 24 years of combined experience, as an active duty Army air defense artillery officer and now as a civilian contractor. His experience dealing with air and missile defense challenges has equipped him to contribute significantly to Nimble Titan’s recognition as the premier experiment for global coalition ballistic missile defense. His dedication to mission expanded our Allied Integration effort and increased our future defense capabilities. (Kater was unable to attend; Mr. Loeffelholz accepted the award for Kater.) ♦