SHOW UP AND TRY “ STAFF SGT. DEBRA STOKES
COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: U.S. Army Special Operations Command TITLE: Contract specialist YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 3 MILITARY OR CIVILIAN: Military YEARS OF MILITARY SERVICE: 12
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: Level II in contracting
EDUCATION: MBA, American Military University; B.A. in military management and program acquisition, American Military University
AWARDS: Army Commendation Medal (8th award), Army Achievement Medal (5th award), Army Good Conduct Medal (4th award), National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terror Service Medal, NCO Professional Development Ribbon (2nd award), Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon (4th award), Armed Forces Reserve Component Medal (M Device)
tions units, she is the 2020 Army Contracting Command Best Warrior of the Year and the Army Materiel Command Noncommissioned Officer of the Year—and she’s not done yet. For the Air Force brat from Beavercreek, Ohio, enlisting in the Army was the first step. “My parents were Air Force, my dad retired from Wright-Patter- son Air Force Base, and we lived nearby from third grade on,” she said. It wasn’t just about being tough, though. She saw more opportunities for herself in the Army, and had her grandfather’s example to follow.
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And so far, her path has been anything but predictable. Stokes began her Army enlistment as a chaplain’s assistant. “Tat role is very different than what I do now in contracting,” she said, “but I gained a lot of people skills and learned to listen.” Te experience helped to shape her character and equip her to handle difficult situ- ations, she said.
She applied to the Army Acquisition Workforce after finishing graduate school. “I was eager to use my education and found this MOS [military occupational specialty],” she said. “It fit well with my fields of study.” In her first acquisition job, she worked as a contract specialist for the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) at Fort Riley, Kansas. “Te challenge and the variety of contract- ing appealed to me,” she said. “Te civilian workforce at the MICC became like family and taught me the ins and outs of basic contracting.”
Just a year later, she deployed to Jordan. “I was able to obtain a warrant so I could serve my team as a contracting officer.” Te deployment was an important milestone in her career, because she gained experience with contracting in a contingency envi- ronment and learned to perform civilian employee reviews and appraisals. “And I went to air assault school.” A former chaplain’s assistant turned contract specialist, jumping out of helicopters in the desert? Sure. Why not?
“It was pretty cool,” she said. “My brigade was allowed to send one person to the school, and I was selected.” She was nervous to represent her team and wanted to perform well, which was quite a difficult task. “It was one of the most intense things you can imagine,” she said. Of 270 Soldiers who started the course, only 190 finished; 182 of them were men. “Tere were only eight females in the entire course and all eight of us made it,” she said. “Just that fact that half of us were moms and we held our own—it was such a rare opportunity.” She’s proud, and rightfully so.
So, what would come next for Stokes? More competition. “I most recently competed in the Army Contracting Command and Army Materiel Command Best Warrior competitions,” she said. And she won. “It was a lot of studying and training.” Natu- rally, things were a bit different this year during the coronavirus pandemic. “We
was like 18 and I wanted to be tough.” Without context, those words strike fear in the hearts of parents everywhere. But for Staff Sgt. Debra Stokes, that moment was the start of a fascinating, unexpected and impressive Army career. Recently selected to conduct contracting with special opera-
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Army AL&T Magazine
Fall 2020
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