TACOM’S SUSTAINMENT LIAISON
S BENTON GADY
COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: Materiel Systems Organization, U.S. Army Tank- Automotive and Armaments Command
TITLE: Director, Acquisition Life Cycle Cell
YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 18
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: Level III in program management and in engineering
EDUCATION: M.S. in mechani- cal engineering, Wayne State University; B.S. in mechanical engineer- ing, Michigan Technological University
AWARDS: Commander’s Award for Civilian Service
ure, acquisition can be a rough-and-tumble field. But have you ever tried work- ing with hockey parents? Benton Gady has, and his experience in both arenas is paying dividends for the sustainment of Army ground platforms.
Gady is chief of the Acquisition Life Cycle Cell within the Materiel Systems
Organization at the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), advising the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) on decisions related to efficient and effective sustainment. “I sit on senior Army decision review boards and communicate the AMC concerns regarding requirements or acquisition planning” to teams at U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. As part of that job, he has prepared and briefed the commanding major general of TACOM as well as AMC’s executive deputy to the commanding general on the programs that have appeared before the Army Requirements Oversight Council for approval. Additionally, Gady was recently named director of the Industrial Base Health Directorate, providing independent analysis of the TACOM industrial base that supports the National Security Strategy.
“My position is a one-off, and it’s kind of sideways to TACOM,” Gady explained. TACOM is tasked with sustaining Army ground systems, Soldier systems, and chem- ical and biological defense systems; and as a result oversees the sustainment efforts of five program executive offices (PEOs).
“Tere’s just my boss and me as the PM-trained acquisition advisers to TACOM. We’re the liaisons between the program managers and the sustainment community, and we work with leadership at the two-star level to ensure that good decisions are made rela- tive to acquisition and sustainment of Army ground vehicles.”
Gady began his career as a college engineering co-op student in the former U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research and Development Center (TARDEC), now the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center, and has since “bounced around the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Michigan, working within TARDEC, the PEO for GCS [Ground Combat Systems] and now on the sustainment side with TACOM.”
Working first as an engineer on developmental projects, Gady switched to program management in 2011 as an assistant product manager in charge of executing the Engi- neering Change Proposal 2 program for Bradley Fighting Vehicles at PEO GCS—a switch that marked a turning point in his career, he said. “I didn’t really know what it entailed before I started, but I realized fairly quickly that the position offered a lot more influence over a program than an engineering position—and that’s coming from
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Army AL&T Magazine
Summer 2019
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