CONTRACTING
thing twice. I’ve never had a job where I worked hard all day and left to go home with more work [remaining] to do the next day—and there is never an idle moment.”
Te biggest challenges he faces? Turnover and time differences.
“A large number of our customers are here on one-year tours, so once we establish a good rapport, they leave and it is déjà vu all over again,” said Dunaway. “We do our best to overcome this by keeping communications open so we are prepared for the transi- tions to make them as seamless as possible.”
Te time difference in Seoul—14 hours ahead of EST—adds another layer of complexity. “Sometimes it is a challenge to communicate with vendors that are located stateside,” he said.
“And, because we are geographically separated from the United States, the shipping and receiving of critical parts can take lon- ger than desired.”
Given the OCONUS location, finding a vendor to meet some of the requirements can be a challenge, Dunaway said, and the language barrier often further complicates things. To combat that hurdle, the team includes people fluent in English and Korean. Having a good team of attorneys also helps, he added.
“Te business practices here are much different than what I was accustomed to: Local vendors will attempt to ‘reward’ the pro- curing activities with gifts during the holidays. Fortunately, we get great ethics briefings from our offices of counsel on how to handle those situations.”
Dunaway came to the Army after a three-decade career in the Air Force. “I initially planned to join for four years, as a way to pay for my college education. I left 24 years later, having also earned an MBA, so I’d say it was an excellent decision.” He retired in 2010 as a master sergeant, after spending most of his career in weapons and acquisition logistics. During his Air Force service, he was a billing official in a program that was managed by the Army and he became interested in how well the Army supported Air Force requirements. “When I retired from the Air Force, I had an opportunity to work for the Army in the GPC program, and it has been a pleasure right from the beginning,” he said.
Te transition from one branch of service to another has been relatively smooth, he added. “Tere is really not much differ- ence between Army contracting and Air Force contracting, with the exception of service-unique requirements that allow the Air Force to procure items that the Army doesn’t and vice versa,” he said.
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
Open lines of communication and keeping training current are priorities for Dunaway’s GPC Branch, given high turnover in the customer base. Many of the cardholders Dunaway assists are in Korea on one-year tours.
Helping to make that change fairly easy was an early supervi- sor: Andre Pelliccia, GPC agency and organization program coordinator and certified charge card manager with the Busi- ness Oversight Branch in the Fort Worth District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “He was an excellent mentor, as he assisted me with the change from the Air Force climate to the Army climate, and he was also an advocate of education and self-improvement,” Dunaway said. “Acquisition is a constantly changing environment, so it is important to continuously learn to keep up with the changes.”
For Dunaway, the best learning opportunity so far has been the Army Acquisition Intermediate Contracting Course; he was able to obtain all of the necessary requirements to achieve Level II certification in contracting in four weeks. But one class isn’t sufficient, he noted. “Earn a bachelor’s degree in business and perhaps a master’s degree as well,” he said. “And keep an open mind: Acquisition is fast-paced. Take advantage of all of the education and training opportunities that the Army has to offer.”
—MS. SUSAN L. FOLLETT
ASC.ARMY.MIL 107
CONTRACTING
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