Acquisition Corps - Army Strong Stories

Educating the force on the Contracting process

Christian Solinsky — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:26:00 GMT

By: Christian Solinsky
More and more of the Army’s requirements are being fulfilled with commercial contracts and this will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Due to this current trend, the Army needs to re-look the way we prepare and educate the Army’s leadership to understand the contracting process. I have observed a tendency in the last 4 years of leaders and agencies that do not understanding their role in the contracting process. The Centers of Army Lessons Learned has put out several...read more

XM-25 making progress

Mark Cap — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:49:00 GMT

By: Mark Cap
As an ILE student, we study a variety of subjects from leadership to military history and most recently force management. During a recent block of instructions, we focused on the joint capability and integration development system (JCIDS) as well as the DOTMLPF group (doctrine, organization, training, material, leadership, personnel, and facilities). Interesting to me was how DOTMLPF provides insights into foreseeable requirements and indentifies gaps. These gaps can then...read more

The Desert-My Intro

Tiffany Drinkwater — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:45:16 GMT

By: Tiffany Drinkwater
I am stationed at Fort Irwin, home of the NTC so if you been here you would know it's not exciting. I dislike this place, it's lonely, boring, you have to drive 2hrs for everything and gas is expensive! So I'll be coming on my first year tour in May and they are sending me to Afghanistan in July so one hell hole to another. Ugh, I hate being here but the good job is I'm a 51C, Contracting NCO so I love what I do. I been in for 11yrs now and the Army has been good to me....read more

WOMEN IN COMBAT UNITS

Dachelle Banks — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:58:00 GMT

By: Dachelle Banks
Recently I read in various media outlets that Congress is examining whether the Department of Defense Department (DoD) should eliminate restrictions on women serving in combat units and end all gender restrictive policies. As a former female Field Artillery (FA) Officer, I completed the FA Office Basic Course just like my male counterparts but unfortunately I was limited in the units in which I could be assigned. I personally feel it is time for DoD to do away with this policy. But rest...read more

Introduction to the Army ACS (Advanced Civil Schooling) Program

Vinson Morris — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:00:00 GMT

By: Vinson Morris
When we hear ACS and Army in the same context we often think Army Community Services, but I am writing to ensure young officers are aware of the Advanced Civil Schooling program. As a junior officer, I knew the Army provided opportunities to attend graduate school, but was unsure how to pursue these opportunities or where to go for answers. Upon functional area selection into the Acquisition Corps my branch manager explained the importance of graduate level education in the acquisition...read more

Thank a Veteran

Jonas Vogelhut — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:44:00 GMT

By: Jonas Vogelhut
This past weekend, I was given the great opportunity to address another group of veteran’s, this time the Jewish War Veterans (JWV), and talk about our military. It was the state meeting for Pennsylvania, but included the national JWV president from DC. It was my honor to talk with an excellent panel of heroes from WW II, Korea, Vietnam, and other wars. We talked about the state of the military, and I thanked them all for enabling the Soldiers of today to benefit from...read more

Veteran's Day in Harrisburg, PA

Jonas Vogelhut — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:18:00 GMT

By: Jonas Vogelhut
At the Army War College, each student is asked to perform a public speaking engagement, Most choose to speak at a military related event, veterans of foreign wars, etc. I chose to speak at the Veteran's day event in Harrisburg PA. The event was hosted by a local merchant, one that has been very kind and has hired many veterans. Today's event was attended by 100 people, about 45 veterans from WW II to Iraq/Afghanistan. It was wonderful that this...read more

Army Educational Opportunities

Patrick Major — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:19:00 GMT

By: Patrick Major
The Army always loves to tout that you can get educational benefits after Soldiers leave the services. I would like to see our Army expand their approach because young people interested in the Army do not realize that they also get educational benefits while they are still in. I had no idea that there were this many different opportunities besides just shooting M-16s and riding around in HUMVEEs. It took me a few years to figure out that there are additinal educational opportunities...read more

Army War College

Jonas Vogelhut — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:40:00 GMT

By: Jonas Vogelhut
Recently, I was selected to attend the Army War College in Carlisle, PA. What a great organization. This college prepares selected military, civilian, and international leaders for the responsibilities of strategic leadership in a joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational environment. I know the Alumni of this great school have taken many supreme leadership positions throughout the globe, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Chiefs of various other country militaries, and many...read more

What happen to policing up after ourselves?

John Pratt — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:50:00 GMT

By: John Pratt
I've been in the Army for awhile now and as a former junior enlisted, NCO, junior officer, etc, I've seen a number of changes in the Army in the last 25 years. Sure, our young soldier's and officer's are smarter and brighter these days. However, the Army has gotton very soft and undiscipline as well. The lack of discipline amongst the ranks is very disheartening. It's not a matter of being great Americans and deploying consecutively to...read more

Aberdeen Proving Ground

Jonas Vogelhut — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:11:00 GMT

By: Jonas Vogelhut
Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) Maryland is a wonderful place to live and work. Nestled between Baltimore and Philadelphia, we have an excellent workforce comprised of Soldiers, other service members, Government Civilians, and Contractors. Our base is unique in the extreme growth we are feeling now and will continue to have over the next two years. The Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005 mandated other bases close and send their jobs to APG. There are tremendous opportunities on...read more

Is Army culture vanishing with contractors?

John Pratt — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:35:00 GMT

By: John Pratt
Deploy down range today and you'll see a number of contractors working alongside the military doing a number of tasks. Estimates now say that there are approximately 7 to 1 ratio of civlian to military in combat. That is a significant amount. Why has the military and specifically from an Army perspective that there are so many civlilans in Iraq or Afghanistan? Has the Army lost it's ability to do our mission by ourselves? We have either downsized or consolidated specialized tasks that we no...read more

Thank you 82nd Airborne

Jonas Vogelhut — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:03:00 GMT

By: Jonas Vogelhut
Thank you brave Soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division for your dedication to our nation and willing support to those in need in Haiti. It always amazes me to see our young men and women ready in a few hours notice to leave there home and deploy to a foreign nation willing to support our neighbors and help the fallen. Working long days and sleeping in the open or in small tents, they show a tremendous positive attitude that things will get better and that our nation is here to support them. As...read more

Acquisition Workforce

Jonas Vogelhut — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:02:00 GMT

By: Jonas Vogelhut
I, like most in the acquisition workforce, work each day striving to get capability to warfighters. Proven equipment Soldiers can use today to dominate on the battlefield. My current organization is unique because we handle a portfolio of different equipment, focusing on Situational Awareness, Force Protection, and Target Acquisition. The Soldiers, DoD Civilians and contractors in my organization work the development and sustainment of systems and rapidly transform...read more

Acquisition Corps - Hooah!

Jonas Vogelhut — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:42:00 GMT

By: Jonas Vogelhut
If your reading this, either you stumbled to the wrong site or your interested in the Acquisition Corps. I will work each week to create a blog about the Acquisition Corps, the great work the Corps does to provide for Soldiers and Warfighters, and the opportunities the Corps provides for officers looking to work a functional area and make a tremendous impact to our Army. As an overview, I provide the Acqusition Corps Vision and Mission from our web site....read more