ARMY AL&T
interest to him. “I had never heard of the Army Acquisition Corps before,” he said. “He explained what he did and I was fascinated about all the education and career opportunities in acquisition.”
As an armor officer, Vanyo was on tanks in Korea and Germany. “I absolutely love the Abrams, but I also often wondered how to make them even better, so acquisition sounded like the perfect career path to me,” he said.
Vanyo’s first acquisition assignment was as a combat developer at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he had the opportunity to work on a joint U.S. and U.K. development effort called the Future Scout and Cavalry System. “It was a tremendous assignment as I was able to leverage my operational experience and really get to under- stand the requirements process and how industry engineers made design trades,” he said. “Working on an international program really opened my eyes to both opportunities and challenges. I could not have asked for a better first acquisition assignment.”
Vanyo said the Program Manager’s Course (PMT 401), which he took in 2012, prepared him to be an effective product manager by reviewing numerous case studies and having rigorous discussions
regarding specific situations, what happened, why and what could be learned from them. “Te instructors told us we’d have ‘aha’ moments as PMs where we’d be in situations and recall a particu- lar case study that encountered something very similar,” he said. “I was shocked at how right they were and the tremendous amount of actual aha moments I had where I was able to leverage the discussions and lessons learned and apply them to our program’s unique problems. I would encourage anyone desiring to become a program manager to take the course. … It’s invaluable.”
Vanyo said he also would encourage junior acquisition personnel (both civilian and military) to try and get a broad sampling of assignments so they gain a better appreciation for how all aspects of the life cycle fit together. For example, he said, “I think having S&T [science and technology] engineers moving to a matrix program management office (PMO) assignment for a number of years increases their understanding of what it takes to deliver capability to the field and to sustain it. Te opposite is also true, when PMO personnel take an assignment in science and tech- nology, they gain an appreciation for the difficulty of developing new technology and transitioning it to programs of record.”
After spending 30 years on active duty and then returning to the Army as a Department of the Army civilian, Vanyo said most of his neighbors, family and friends consider him the “Army guy.”
“Most people outside the military or defense industry find that doing anything for the Army is fascinating, and depending on the job I’ve had at the time, they are really drawn to the fact that I’m able to work on things that have a real impact on Soldier surviv- ability,” he said. “I think my father was very surprised how much and how closely I was working with industry after I transitioned to the Army Acquisition Corps.”
Vanyo said if there is one thing he’s learned it is that acquisi- tion is extremely complex, and there are dedicated professionals across the enterprise that do their very best every day to make a difference for our warfighters. “When there are challenges and disagreements between different stakeholder groups, I try to see things from their point of view and remember they are doing what they think is best. So I do my best to try and find common ground so all the stakeholders can work together as a team to deliver capability.”
CREW REST
Vanyo, taking a brief break inside an Abrams M1IP tank at the Tactical Assembly Area, Camp Casey, South Korea, in fall 1991. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Vanyo)
—CHERYL MARINO
https://asc.ar my.mil
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