BEING IN THE ACQUISITION CORPS IS TRULY WHAT I LOVE TO DO, AND THERE IS NEVER A DAY I GO TO WORK AND WISH I WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE.
I AM IN THE RIGHT PLACE.” M
AJ Mark P. Henderson, who recently redeployed after a year in Afghanistan, ended his most recent
tour of duty on a career high note.
Henderson, who served as Deputy Direc- tor, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASAALT) Operations, Operation Endur- ing Freedom; U.S. Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) Acquisition Advisor Regional Command (Capital); and Acquisition Advisor Regional Command (East), Afghanistan, received a coin from GEN David H. Petraeus, now retired. Henderson is one of 30 personnel whom USFOR-A selected to receive the recognition.
“It means a lot to me personally,” Hender- son told Army AL&T Magazine. “When I arrived in Afghanistan, I wanted to work hard and do my best to represent ASAALT and help as many people as possible. I wanted to make a positive difference. I never had any idea a year ago that all of it would come together in this kind of recognition, and it is a bit overwhelming, but very much welcome and appreciated.”
For Henderson, the coin represents many different aspects of his service in Afghanistan.
“I wanted to serve combatant leadership and Soldiers, while helping improve the materiel enterprise and formalizing the role of the ASAALT forward team,” he explained.
Henderson’s efforts centered on that goal. He identified early in his deploy- ment the need to develop and implement a common operating picture for the entire theater to ensure the “ongoing fielding of the most important materiel requirements in Afghanistan.” From that, he created a weekly, standardized materiel common operating picture, which is currently a 150-slide briefing presented to more than a dozen agencies and commands.
But Henderson did not stop there. In the last few months before redeploy- ing, he expanded the briefing to include information on cost, schedule, and the performance of more than 10,000 indi- vidual pieces of equipment together valued at more than $5 billion.
While Henderson took the lead on the project, he is quick to praise others for the effort they contributed. “I give great credit to the many product managers in theater for their support on this mas- sive undertaking,” he said. “There are
more than 40 separate PMs in theater doing an exceptional job of delivering a wide array of products and services to the warfighter.”
The recognition for his work was only part of the honor, in Henderson’s eyes.
“I remember how it felt to serve in Iraq under the leadership of GEN Petraeus while fielding commercial information technology infrastructure from 2007 to 2009” as the Assistant Project Manager (APM) Defense-Wide Transmission Systems-Forward and APM Vehicular Intercom Systems, Henderson said. “I was always impressed with his leadership and considered him a role model. I thought to myself back then how much of an honor it would be to meet him someday, so it was truly a shock to have the opportunity to meet him and CSM [Marvin L.] Hill, [Senior Enlisted Leader, International Security Assistance Force and USFOR-A], in person, especially under the very positive circumstances which led to the meeting.”
The coin from Petraeus is not Henderson’s first recognition. He has also received the Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Clus- ter, the Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Army
AS
C.ARMY.MI L
129
”
SPOTLIGHT
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140
