OUT-OF-THE-BLUE SOLUTION MAKES SUSTAINMENT EASIER
T CAPT. ZACHARY SCHOFIELD
COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: Product Manager for Wideband Enterprise Satellite Systems, Project Manager for Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems, Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems
TITLE: Assistant product manager YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 1
YEARS OF MILITARY SERVICE: 14 (9 as a commissioned officer)
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: Level I in program management
EDUCATION: M.A. in information technology management and MBA, Webster University; B.A. in liberal studies focusing on anthropology, Georgia Southern University
AWARDS: Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal (3), Army Achievement Medal (2), Meritorious Unit Citation, Afghan Campaign Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal (2), Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon (3), NATO Medal, Air Crew Member Wings
hanks to Capt. Zachary Schofield and his team—and a piece of blue construction paper— logisticians and sustainment person- nel in Korea have a communication system that’s lighter, smaller and much easier to use.
As the assistant product manager for the Combat Sustainment Support Satel- lite Communications Program, Schofield led the team fielding the Army’s new Inflatable Satellite Antenna (Very Small Aperture Terminal), or ISA-VSAT, to 8th Army in response to an operational needs statement. “We redesigned an existing satellite antenna, the T2C2 [Transportable Tactical Command Communications] Lite, and the Army gateways for the WGS [Wideband Global SATCOM] satellite network tie-in, making it simpler to install, oper- ate and maintain than any triband-capable terminal fielded in the Army.”
Te new systems “are dramatically smaller, lighter, more powerful and redun- dant than anything else currently used in the Army,” he said. “Te sustainment community in Korea—and select stateside units—is now positioned to be able to move its logistics information systems … to the extreme edge of the battlefield. Tey are no longer hampered by systems that require a full truck to move.” Te new systems can be transported in two cases, “which allows for sustainment operations anywhere, anytime in the world,” and they can be operated by any Soldier regardless of military occupational specialty. “We don’t need to have school-trained signal Soldiers to enable the sustainment missions—the logisticians can do it themselves,” Schofield said.
Te ISA is lighter and more expeditionary than the legacy version. Two Soldiers can set it up in less than 30 minutes, compared with more than 45 minutes for the previous system. It uses the same portable terminal as the T2C2 Lite, a program of record that provides voice and data communications for opera- tional command posts. Using common equipment means the ISA is already available in the Army supply system.
Fielding the new ISA is a big accomplishment for someone who has been in acquisition for just a year, and Schofield is quick to note that the people he works with were an important component to that success. “All I did was point the program in the right direction and provide some insights from the field,” he said. “We have a team of technicians, engineers, tech writers, trainers and logisticians that really made this program a success. I didn’t do that much in comparison. Even the network and terminal designs that I created were really just poorly drawn sketches on a page of my son’s construction paper that the team made real.”
114
Army AL&T Magazine
Summer 2019
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