Interns to senior leaders earn hardware

  • Published
  • By Benjamin Newell
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Hanscom personnel earned nearly a third of all center-level awards at the 2018 Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Program and Test Management awards ceremony, held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, Nov. 14.

“What you see if you look at our winners is they represent every age and experience level of our workforce, from an intern to senior materiel leaders and diverse teams,” said Patrick Marr, Hanscom’s program management career field manager, who spoke at the event. “We’re at a place where Dr. William Roper, [the Air Force’s senior civilian acquisition leader] confers with our program executive officers on a regular basis and our acquisition strategies are recognized throughout the military.”

Hanscom picked up six of 19 awards. Individuals picked up four, while two teams working on Air Operations Center sustainment and upgrades earned group recognition.

Brian Davies, an intern in the Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks Directorate, delivered $2 million in government furnished equipment two weeks early for the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node program, giving combatant commanders and forces in theater better situational awareness. Davies’ program, BACN, became a program of record this year after more than a decade classified as an urgent operational need.

Lt. Col. Robert Waider, working for PEO Digital, assigned to Peterson AFB, Colorado, provided missile warning capabilities to multiple allies, earning a senior foreign military sales award.

In the outstanding Acquisition Category two program manager category, Lt. Col. David Friedman of C3I&N at Hanscom earned recognition for leading a 375-member team in setting up a system that enabled better classified information sharing between the military and industry partners. The cloud-based system cut transfer times by 90 percent.

Lt. Col. Erik Rhylander of C3I&N at Hanscom led 75 people, managing a classified program valued at more than $1 billion.

AFLCMC recognized Project Kessel Run as a complete change in how the Air Force executes software development, while the AOC weapons system program office picked up an award for executing the pathfinder that created Kessel Run.

“We're taking the pay-it-forward approach to spreading best practices and insights we've learned from Department of Defense innovation organizations and commercial industry partners like Pivotal Inc.,” said Lt. Col. Jeremiah Sanders, PEO Digital senior materiel leader and chief executive officer of Project Kessel Run. “We host about 10 other DoD organizations and distinguished visitors monthly for ‘Enablement Day Sessions’ in our Kessel Run Experimentation Lab. We give an overview of agile best practices, tech stack, culture and human resource needs, funding and contracting approaches, shifting left and automating cybersecurity and functional testing, and other requisites to building an organization focused on continuously delivering valuable outcomes.” 

Hanscom had 17 total nominees in 11 out of 19 categories.