ACQUISITION


SPOTLIGHT MR. RALPH P. “PAT” DeGROODT


Sailing trip benefits battlefield communications MR. RALPH P. “PAT” DeGROODT


COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: Project Manager Warfighter Information Network – Tactical (WIN-T), Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications – Tactical (PEO C3T)


POSITION AND OFFICIAL TITLE: Deputy Product Manager for WIN-T Increment 2


YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 25 AWARDS:


National Security and International Affairs Medal Finalist, the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, 2014. Achievement Medal for Civilian Service, 2009


EDUCATION: B.S. in engineering, Widener University S


oldiers communicating on the fly have, in part, the five-year, around-the-world sailing trip that Pat DeGroodt and his wife took to thank for the advanced communications options that the Army provides. DeGroodt, deputy product manager for the Warfighter Information Network – Tactical (WIN-T) Incre-


ment 2, was motivated to work on the system after his trip highlighted the challenges of communicating in remote places without the technology we’ve come to rely on.


“I grew up sailing and reading books written by the early circumnavigators like Joshua Slocum, [Sir] Robin Knox-Johnston and Sir Francis Chichester,” DeGroodt said. “Sail- ing around the world became a life goal at an early age. Around 1995 or so, my wife and I decided we had sufficient sailing experience, and the timing was right in our personal lives to leave on a trip.” He and Colleen left from New Jersey in 1998 and returned in 2003, after more than 30,000 miles of sailing.


Te trip included stops in remote, uninhabited places like the Chagos Archipelago, a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean. “Most of the time we communicated through ham radio, and it was interesting to see the challenges of communicating without the infrastructure that’s commonly in place. It’s the same on the battlefield,” he said.


For DeGroodt, that challenge is one of the things that most people don’t know about the work he does. “Rarely do folks outside the military consider the limitations imposed on our Soldiers when they cannot use commercial infrastructure like cell towers and Internet service providers in a country to do their job,” he said. “Our technology pro- vides always-on communications without relying on country infrastructure that an enemy could deny the use of or compromise.”


DeGroodt started in government work with the Navy out of college as an engineer- ing intern and later moved to the Army. “From my first job with the Navy, I have been involved in the acquisition side,” he said. In the Army, that means “applying


14 Army AL&T Magazine October–December 2014


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