ALWAYS HIT THE SAVE BUTTON
Sometimes the most valuable lessons learned are those taught through our own mistakes. For Sgt. 1st Class Donald Piper, this happened early in his career when a simple mistake cost him hours of additional work. As mistakes go, this one was somewhat small, but the lesson had great impact.
“Always hit the save button and double-check your work,” he said about the step he won’t forget to do again. Piper, who is a noncommissioned officer-in-charge (NCOIC) for the Regional Contracting Office – Jordan, had been working in Procurement Desk- top-Defense, which is part of the Standard Procurement System for training, when the site crashed unexpectedly, just as he was finalizing his work. “After I was able to log back into the system, I realized none of my previous work had been saved. I was upset with the fact it seemed like I had just wasted an entire day of work, but in reality, it was more like a couple of hours. After this incident, I hit the save button all the time.”
SGT. 1ST CLASS DONALD PIPER
COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: 1965th Contingency Contracting Team, deployed with 408th Contracting Support Brigade Theater Contracting Support – Southwest Asia
TITLE: Noncommissioned officer-in-charge, Regional Contracting Office – Jordan
YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 6 YEARS OF MILITARY SERVICE: 14
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: Contracting Professional
EDUCATION: B.S. in business administration, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
AWARDS: Joint Service Commendation Medal; Army Commendation Medal; Army Achievement Medal; Air and Space Achieve- ment Medal; Humanitarian Service Medal
On the computer and in real life, saving and retaining valuable information he learns along the way helps avoid future problem-inducing issues.
“Another important lesson is to always be open to learning. Always be able to learn from and grow from your own mistakes, be open to other people’s ideas and advice, and be willing to seek out the answers you are looking for,” he said.
Piper is currently deployed with the 408th Contracting Support Brigade as the office’s primary contracting officer and the administrative contracting officer for all Army Base Life Support contracts throughout Jordan. In this role, he provides theater contract support for things like nontactical vehicles, host nation coordination services, custom broker services and military exercises in Jordan. As administrative contracting officer, Piper also ensures that all aspects of the contracts are being adhered to, managing all contracting officer’s representatives (CORs), reviewing and approving monthly status reports and handling any issues that may arise.
Overall, Piper said, he assists the units he supports in procuring the supplies or services that allow them to complete their missions. “When my supported units are completing their missions, they are also assisting in completing their higher headquarters mission, which, in turn, helps with the Army’s overall mission success.”
And the people he works with are a big part of that success. “Tis goes from other Army Acquisition Workforce colleagues, requiring activities and CORs to contractors,” he said. “We all must form a partnership to be able to ensure our missions are completed successfully.”
Te most interesting thing people find about his work is the wide range of things the Army purchases. “One day I can be purchasing simple supplies or catered meals, to the next day trying to figure out how to procure supplies for humanitarian assistance,” he said. “One of my friends thinks I have a bunch of the U.S.’s secrets. But I, in fact, don’t have any of the U.S.’s secrets.”
36 Army AL&T Magazine Winter 2025
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