Page 13 - FCA Diamond Point Dec 24-smg review

AT THE FOREFRONT

Defense Finance and Accounting Service (Cont’d)

Thanks to my friend Deb Kelley and her husband Fred Wink. I have known Deb since July 2001
when I signed into the Army G4 as the Logistics Program Evaluation Group Executive, and Deb
was the GS-15 leading the other team. Deb used her credibility with the DCSLOG LTG Chuck Mahan
when I had been prepping briefing packages that were changed at the 2-Star Deputy G4 level and
did not pass muster when briefing the 3-Star DCSLOG. One day, Deb dropped by my office and
said “suggest you bring your original briefing with you” when you brief the DCSLOG along with the
Deputy approved package. I suspect Deb had advised LTG Mahan as he reviewed the approved 2-
Star package to ask me for the briefing deck I took to the Deputy. Once I produced that deck, LTG
Mahan said this is it, no changes. That improved our speed delivery when the DCSLOG needed to
compete for resources. Deb and I worked together through DCSLOG recovery from 911 and further
when DFAS IN was her service provider when she was the Missile Defense Agency CFO.
Jeff Register, the Dir. Defense Human Resources Agency, you have been a super partner from the
time I met you when I was the DFAS Dir., IT and we were working through the onerous
Organizational Execution Program process with OSD. Thanks for your support from then to now.

SES & COL (RET) Tom Steffens our former DCFO have known each other since 1984 when he was
at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in the summer after his Advance Camp and we met when I was the
82d ABN DIV Disbursing Officer. We are good friends and over the years we served as groomsmen
together, attended the same finance pre-command course before he deployed to Iraq. Tom was our
DFAS customer at Army Corp of Engineers and caught me at an ASMC PDI with an idea with Greg
Schmalfeldt for making changes to DDRS that would prove critical to ACOE passing audit. His
strategy and achievement proved a pathfinder for others to follow. While Tom and I share quite a
few things from our military service and time after, we are also members of the Pershing Rifles
military fraternity. He is a ST Peters P/R, and I am a P/R from Company A-16 out of Southern
University Baton Rouge. As P/Rs while we strive on friendly competition, we always support each
other.

The current DCFO – Tina Pierce and ADCFO Kim Laurance – Thanks for coming today and thanks
for your continued actions keeping DFAS by your side. We are a team of teams. Steve Laurance,
CFO for the Federal Trade Commission – thanks for being here as well.

LTC (RET) Norman W. Nash, in the audience today, was the Professor of Military Science at
Southern University (SU). LTC Nash took an underperforming unit and turned it into a high officer
producing unit in terms of quality and quantity. You served as our role model, mentor, and coach.
Sir, you mentored me to a heightened appreciation of commissioning as a higher priority and your
professionalism made the cadets and P/Rs want to compete and win whatever race we were in.
Thanks for instilling in each SU AROTC cadet that we could serve our country with distinction.
Thanks for being at my first oath of office, and both Army and now my civil service retirements.

My time at Southern prepared me well for the hurdles of the United States Army. I learned the value
of teamwork, partnership, and commitment to excellence. CPT Julius Coates and the NCOs
ensured we were ready for Advance Camp and whatever challenge awaited. And the entire team of
officers, NCOs; and admin team (Ms. Riley) ensured we were ready for commissioning and our
basic courses. SUAROTC was my lifeline to the future and I greatly appreciate all LTC Nash, SGM
Davis, our resident green beret, and the leadership team did to prepare us.

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