IT TAKES A TEAM
MR. MICHAEL ANTHONY FORMER DIRECTOR, RDECOM FIELD ASSISTANCE IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER BAGRAM AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN
PROVIDING SOLUTIONS FOR SOLDIERS
I
n the forward-deployed environment, there is no Home Depot. But there is the RFAST-C, the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) Field Assistance in Science and Technology Center. For
Mike Anthony, who was deployed to Afghanistan for six months through May 2013 as director of the RFAST-C, that role was the pinnacle of job satisfaction.
“A lot of people—my family, friends, and co-workers—said, ‘Why are you volunteering to go over to Afghanistan?’ ” Te living conditions are uncommonly austere, and the work hours virtually nonstop. For Anthony, the answer was clear. “In the States, there are challenging assignments, but you don’t always see the payoff for those for a long time.” In Afghanistan, “you see the payoff on a daily basis. You have the interaction with the end user on a daily basis, and that’s extremely rewarding.”
Te RFAST-C is an embedded engineering and prototype fabrication capability with the mission to rapidly develop engi- neering solutions in support of operational requirements. Te RFAST-C team consists of government engineers, scientists and technicians, and equipment operators. Personnel also include a power and energy cell with expertise in the monitoring and field testing of energy efficiency initiatives, microgrid technologies, advanced energy storage, modeling and simulation of energy use, expeditionary shelters and human factors.
RFAST-C provides support for materiel solutions to U.S. Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A); numerous maneuver units; joint task forces and their subordinate units; the 401st Army Field Sup- port Brigade (AFSB); the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA(ALT)) program management teams; and others.
“We can pretty much take any Soldier-inspired idea and then iteratively design it, and provide something pretty quickly— and by quickly I mean within a day—and get it back to that
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requesting unit or Soldier. Tey’ll take that item out on mis- sions, and then come back and give us feedback.” Sometimes these are just one-off items, maybe a bracket a Soldier needs to keep a piece of gear in check. Often, however, the items become part of programs of record (PORs). Anthony said his group has produced several hundred Soldier-inspired items that are now elements of PORs.
For Anthony, the real impact of having acquisition per-
sonnel at the tip of the spear is speed—not just in getting Soldiers what they need when they need it, but also in train- ing younger, civilian acquisition workforce members who may never have had any experience with the military, much less the operational Army.
“A LOT OF PEOPLE—MY FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND CO- WORKERS—SAID, ‘WHY ARE YOU VOLUNTEERING TO GO OVER TO AFGHANISTAN?’ ... IN THE STATES, THERE ARE CHALLENGING ASSIGNMENTS, BUT YOU DON’T ALWAYS SEE THE PAYOFF FOR THOSE FOR A LONG TIME.”
Army AL&T Magazine July–September 2013
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