EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE FORCE
And when mentoring individuals, he tells them he’s not there to teach them as a contract specialist, he’s teaching them to become a contracting officer.
“Te advice I always give to junior acqui- sition personnel is never stop honing your craft. Tere is always something new to learn,” he said. “Once you think you have it all figured out, either something new arises, or the policy changes.”
DADDY AND DAUGHTERS Piper with daughters Kaydence, left, and Loralie, in February 2023, before a Daddy and Daughter Dance in Edwardsville, Illinois. (Photo courtesy of Donald Piper)
Piper said his decision to become a member of the Army Acquisition Work- force is probably a bit different than most.
“In December of 2016 I received an email asking me if I was interested in a tour of duty in contracting. At that time, I didn’t even know what ‘contracting’ was, let alone the Army had this as a MOS [mili- tary occupational specialty]. Without hesitation, I replied with, ‘I’m interested, but what is contracting?’ Te response I received was just a copy and paste of the job description from the posting.”
At the time he received the offer, Piper said he wasn’t satisfied with where his current career path was heading. “I knew if I decided to accept the tour of duty, I would receive active-duty orders for a significant amount of time, thus allowing me the time to try and figure out how to change my civilian career path, while also changing my military one. So, I took the chance and accepted the tour of duty.”
Once he received his orders, Piper’s first position in the workforce was at
the
United States Property and Fiscal Office – Illinois Purchasing and Contracting Division. “Te appeal was being able to learn about something completely new,” he said. “A few months into this position I learned I would be heading on my first deployment, and six months later, I was deployed to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. During this deployment I learned I could do this as a DOD civilian, so I applied for an open position as a 1102 [National Guardsman] and was offered the job as a contract specialist.”
He said the most important points of his career are being able to meet the needs of the units he supports, giving sound advice to supported units and being able to help shape the next batch of contracting profes- sionals.
“In this field it’s not only important to be able to assist the units we support by just contracting for the things they need, but also important to be able to provide busi- ness advice on ways to improve submitting requirement packages or providing ways to help streamline the procurement process.”
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Another important tip for honing one’s craft is training. Piper’s latest career devel- opment course was the Construction Contracting Course. “I took this course back in December 2021 and learned there was a lot that went into awarding a construction contract as well as adminis- tering the contracts.”
Outside of work, Piper is known for being a loyal friend. “If any one of my friends or family ask me for help, and if I can help them, I will stop what I’m doing to go help, and I do the same thing in my work. If a junior team member needs assistance, I make sure I am available to assist them. I do the same thing with the requiring activ- ity and the contactor,” he said. “Te way I see it, the more efficient they are at their jobs, the more it allows me to be efficient at my job.”
“I wish I had been made aware about acquisitions sooner, not only in my military career but also my civilian career,” he said. “It has truly been a great decision to join the Army Acquisition Workforce.”
—CHERYL MARINO
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